Christmas writing

Christmas Writing

Here's some advice to help you with your Christmas writing task.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of studying English abroad?

Point 1. Advantages.
Point 2. Disadvantages.
Point 3. Your final choice. 


First of all, a link to the flo-joe page we used in class today, 17.12.14, where you can practice correcting some typical writing mistakes.

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/writing/makeover/makeover9.htm


Secondly, one of the aspects of your writing that examiners look for is how well you connect your ideas, so I've included another flo-joe link that we used today with examples and activities that I hope will be useful.

(Cut and paste) http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/writing/linking/index.htm

Finally, I've copied some advice from the Cambridge page, with a list of do's and dont's.

DO

• Read the whole question thoroughly and underline important parts.
• Make a plan for each answer, including ALL points.
• Expand the points in Part 1 if you can, using relevant ideas and information.
• Write in paragraphs, whenever appropriate.
• Use a range of vocabulary, even if you are unsure of the correct spelling.
• Check tense endings, plural forms and word order in sentences.
• Check irregular past tenses and question formation.
• Use language that is appropriately formal or informal for the task.
• Choose a question you feel confident you can write about in Part 2.
• Write clearly, so that the examiner can read your answer.

DON'T

• Don't misspell key words which appear on the question paper.
• Don't use the exact words from the question paper too much.
• Don't mix formal and informal language.
• Don't use formal linkers in an informal letter.
• Don't waste time writing addresses for a letter as they are not required.
• Don't answer Question 5 if you haven’t read either of the books.
• Don't worry if you run slightly over the word limit.

Have a great Christmas.

Tom.

The all-important linkers.

Here are some easy and useful linkers to practice now, then use in your writing.

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/writing/linking/index.htm

Use Facebook to help you pass your FCE

Hello, everyone. 
I've recently signed up for writing tips on the website Flo-Joe, which you've already seen in class, and on this blog. If you'd like their help, and you have a Facebook page, check out the mail below.


Dear Tom

We all know studying a little each day pays off and will help you
get that top grade you're after. However, we all lead such busy
lives and simply REMEMBERING to do this can be a challenge, never
mind actually sitting down and doing the work.

Well, we'd like to give you a helping hand. If you use Facebook you
can now get daily updates from us featuring a short, bite-sized
exercise to help you prepare efficiently and effectively for your
FCE exam. Simply become a fan of our Facebook page and we'll do the
rest!

Remember to click 'Become a Fan' to get our updates directly to
your Facebook homepage and if you have friends preparing for FCE
please feel free to share our updates with them!
Here's the link:

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/facebook.htm

For class Saturday 20th

You don't need to do anything with this. We'll look at it in class.


http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/writing/makeover/makeover15.htm


Advice from Cambridge:

DO

• Read the whole question thoroughly and underline important parts.
• Make a plan for each answer, including ALL points.
• Expand the points in Part 1 if you can, using relevant ideas and information.
• Write in paragraphs, whenever appropriate.
• Use a range of vocabulary, even if you are unsure of the correct spelling.
• Check tense endings, plural forms and word order in sentences.
• Check irregular past tenses and question formation.
• Use language that is appropriately formal or informal for the task.
• Choose a question you feel confident you can write about in Part 2.
• Write clearly, so that the examiner can read your answer.

DON'T

• Don't misspell key words which appear on the question paper.
• Don't use the exact words from the question paper too much.
• Don't mix formal and informal language.
• Don't use formal linkers in an informal letter.
• Don't waste time writing addresses for a letter as they are not required.
• Don't answer Question 5 if you haven’t read either of the books.
• Don't worry if you run slightly over the word limit.

Class 13.12.14

In this class we studied pages 40 & 41

Listening:
From student's CD-Rom Units 1 & 2

Speaking:
Celebrity culture.
Practice phrasal verbs with 'Keep'

Grammar:
Word formation. Celebrity culture p.41 Ex.8

Reading: 
Celebrity culture p.41 Ex.8

Vocbulary:
Phrasal verbs with 'Keep'

Exam tasks:
Gapped text. p.40 Ex.3
Word formation. Celebrity culture p.41 Ex.8 + Online Flo-Jo 
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/strategy/p3pt5a.htm

Review:
Activities from student's CD-Rom, units 1 & 2.

Homework:
Workbook p.14 Ex.2 + p.15 Ex.4 & 5

Word formation practice.

This is a great page for practising FCE exam activities.

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/strategy/p3pt5a.htm

Mary-Jess exists!

Here's her web-site:
http://www.mary-jess.com/


And here she is on youtube. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_bCcvsqk2k

Read this now!

Please note that if you don't reply to this letter from the CSIM you will recieve publicity from the online programme.

Class 29.11.14

In this class we studied pages 35 & 37.

Listening:
p.35 Ex.7 - 7 stories.

Speaking:
Tense review - Something Circles. (New English File)
Story telling.(New English File)
A time when you met someone famous / Lost something important / Read horoscope.

Grammar:
Tense review - p.37 Ex. 3, 5 & 6

Reading: 
Extract from The Big Sleep p. 37 Ex. 5

Homework:
Exam folder 3 - Open cloze p. 38 & 39
Reading - p.40 Ex. 3 & p.41 Ex. 4 Gapped text.

MY EXOTIC ANIMAL: BLUE POISON ARROW FROG

We can find this beautiful frog in the forests which are located in southern Suriname and northern Brazil. It grows to 3 - 5 cm in length and females are larger than males.

But be careful with this frog, its skin is poisonous. It has venomous glands which serve as a defense mechanism against predators. The poison can paralyze and sometimes kill. To synthesize it, this frog should eat ants or other insects that produce formic acid. If it doesn't eat these bugs, it won't be venomous.

People who live in those forests use the venom to put it on the arrowheads and darts.

The black spots are unique to each frog and the skin color vary from blue to purple. When male frogs become adults they are able to sing.

They are very colorful and appealing frogs but they hide a dangerous secret on their skin.

Games for U.3

Click on the link to play.


http://quizlet.com/16565205/fce-phrasal-verbs-unit-3-objective-first-flash-cards/

THE PANDA: MY EXOTIC ANIMAL

The panda is a bear that lives in China and it's black and white. Also, pandas eat bamboo but they can eat bananas, oranges, eggs or fish too. 

As a result of farming and deforestation, the panda is really endangered. Right now, there are some pandas living in the wild. However, most pandas are living in captivity in China.. 

This is sad but is necessary too because of the smugglers. They capture and kill them because they want to sell them.

Finally, there are some ONGs like WWF (1961) that has already played a role in conserving the Amazon over the past 40 years. 

In my opinion, the panda is the best exotic animal in the world!!! 

I would like to see a panda in the zoo, I haven't seen any panda in my life.

Writing Correction codes

To correct your writing, you'll need to refer to these codes. 

Writing correction code © BBC | British Council 2007

WW = Wrong word           As our plane flew on the mountains we saw snow.
WT = Wrong time              As our plane flew over the mountains we see snow.
WF = Wrong form             As our plane flew over the mountains we was seeing snow.
WO = Wrong order           As our plane over the mountain flew we saw snow.
SP =  Spelling                    As our plane flue over the mountains we saw snow.
P = Punctuation                 As our plane flew over the mountains; we saw snow.
X = Extra word                 As our plane flew over to the mountains we saw snow.
M =  Missing word            As our plane flew over the mountains saw snow.
R = Register                      As our plane flew over the mountains we observed snow.
? = Not clear                     As our plane flew over the mountains we saw snow.
! = Silly mistake!               As our plane flew over the mountains we seed snow.
RW = Try re-writing         Our vehicle flies, we snow find, over mountains you saw it.

Class 22.11.14

In this class we studied pages 32 - 36 of U5

Vocabulary:
Emotions.
Adverbs of degree

Speaking:
Frightening / exciting experiences.
Stuck in a lift.

Listening:
Stuck in a lift.

Grammar:
Review of past tenses.

Writing:
Notes on the listening.

Homework:
WB p.12 & 13
+
Complete the 10 circles in 'Something Circles.' Remember to include only the activity, with no reference to time. Do not write your activities in the same order as prompts 1 - 16.

See you next Saturday.

MY EXOTIC ANIMAL: DUCK-BILLET PLATYPUS

This is a duck-billet platypus, one of the most weird animal that exists. He has a beak similar to ducks', and his legs and skin remind to otters'. The duck-billets are amazing because they have skills of bird, reptile and mammal what indicates that they are a link in the evolution between retpiles and mammals.

This kind of animal lives in the rivers and lakes of Tasmania and Australia. He is a digger, he builds dens in the cost of rivers. When he is under the water his eyes, ears and nostril are closed. For this reason, he has electroreceptors in his beak. The length of that oviparous is around 40cm. And, like marsupials, the milk that he produces is suckled by his children directly from the skin. The males segregate poison like snakes.

All these rarities become him in my favourite exotic animal.

My exotic animal: albino peacock

My exotic animal

I want to host you my favourite exotic animal. This is a white peacock or an albino peacock.
I remember the first-time I saw this rare animal. I mean, when someone say "peacock", you always think in a beautiful bird with an amazing colors, broadcasting a sense of life. Nevertheless, when I saw this rare type of peacock, I felt peaceful. When I see the peacock with outstretched feathers, comes to my mind a snowflakes.
When you hear the therm "albinism", you think of a natural genetic disorder, right? I fear that in this case is not natural. This kind of peacock born by the men hands, and their life spectancy is really short.

It's a beautiful animal that make you feel peaceful and sad at the same time.

WHITE TIGER: MY FAVORITE ENDANGERED ANIMAL.

The White Tiger is also know as the White Bengal Tiger, which is a subspecies of tiger, found throughout the Indian subcontinent. 

These animals are incredibly rare as their colouration is dependent on a defective, recessive gene that is passed on from their parents.

Over the past couple of centuries the White Tiger has become even rarer in the wild due to trophy hunting or capture for the exotic pet trade, with there having been no recorded sightings of these elusive predators for the past 50 years. Today, the wihte tiger can still be found in a handful of zoos and animal sanctuaries around the world with these large and beautiful felines often being the star attraction. Along with the Bengal Tiger, the White Tiger is considered to be the second largest species of tiger in the world after the Siberian Tiger.

My exotic animal

This is one of my favourite exotic animals , the Slow Loris . They are really endangered , mainly because of the contraband . Smugglers usually capture and kill many of  them in Asian jungles , their natural habitat , and then ,they often sell some of them illegally . This is quite sad because many people don't realize they mustn't be used as a pet , so they buy them and this is how the business is generated for the contrabandits. Fortunately , many ONGs like WWF are trying to stop this activity by creating protected areas , denouncing many cases in front of the Justice or rescuing many slow loris from this kind of people.

Homework for Saturday 22.11.14

First of all, if you haven't accepted your invitation to the blog, do it now. If there's any problem, write to me again, and I'll send you another invtation.

Secondly, do Ex. 5, 6 & 7 from WB p.11

Finally, I want you to do Writing folder 2, but without the final essay in Ex.7

That means Ex.1 - 6, including the 30-40 word paragraph in Ex.3. Please print this double 

space, as I'm doing with these instructions.

See you next Saturday.
Tom.

My exotic animal.

We met this lady, much to intimately for comfort, in the Kruger park in South Africa a few years ago. 
Feel free to upload your favourite annimal, exotic or not.
Tom.

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As or like? Matching exercise
  Match the items on the right with the items on the left.
 

Principio del formulario

She sings ______ an angel.	??? as like
I'm much better ______ you can see.	??? as like
My sister is not at all ______ me.	??? as like
My daughter is just ______ my sister.	??? as like
I'm attending the meeting ______ an observer	??? as like
I use one of the bedrooms ______ an office.	??? as like
You are very ______ your mother.	??? as like
I hope to qualify ______ an engineer.	??? as like
My friend Rob looks ______ John Travolta.	??? as like
There is too much traffic in London ______ in New York.	??? as like
We're late for the train. We'll have to run ______ the wind.	??? as like
I'm your friend and, ______ a friend, I advise you to think again.	??? as like
I don't know you as well as he does but, ______ your friend, I advise you to think again.	??? as like
You don't like confrontations, ______ me.	??? as like
I want to join the air force ______ a pilot.	??? as like
We need a strong leader ______ Winston Churchill.	??? as like
He has gone to our competitors ______ marketing manager.	??? as like
I've appointed Simon Williams ______ the new trustee.	??? as like
I've done the work ______ we agreed.	??? as like
I was sure, ______ was everybody else, that you would do well in this job.	??? as like