Subject questions; jobs; free time

Hi again!

In this entry I'm going to post some information to revise Unit 1, and then I'll do the same with Unit 2.

At the beginning of the course we did several activities to know each other (some of you met for the first time!), and in the third week you did your first oral presentations. In groups of 3, you talked about someone important from an English speaking country. Thank you once again for your truly great effort :)

Below (abajo) you have a brief summary of the main grammar and vocabulary we have seen in the unit, so that you can revise at home and do some activities on-line:


SUBJECT QUESTIONS

In Unit 1 we revised how to form normal questions. Remember the word QUASI (QUestion word + Auxiliary + Subject + Infinitive).

Imagine I have the following sentences:

• Josh met  my sister   last night.
• Rich bought  a new laptop   in the supermarket.

I can ask a question for the underlined elements using the QUASI structure:

QU	A	S	I	...?	Answer
Who	did	Josh	meet	last night?	My sister.
When	did	Josh	meet	her?	Last night
What	did	Rich	buy	in the supermarket?	A new laptop
Where	did	Rich	buy	the laptop?	In the supermarket

But we saw that we can also ask about the subject of each sentence (Josh or Richard). In this case, the structure of the sentence changes:

QU	A	S	I	...?	Answer
Who	ø	ø	met	my sister last night?	Josh
Who	ø	ø	bought	a new laptop?	Rich

These are called "subject questions". Below I post a powerpoint presentation I found on the Internet. Maybe it helps you! And click here for an online exercise when you can practise.

Subject and object questions from f2teacher

FINDING THINGS IN COMMON

We have also learnt how to express that we have things in common:

So + aux + I (when we have something positive in common)

     A: I am Spanish.

     B: So am I!

Neither + aux + I (when we have something negative in common)

     A: I don't like baked beans.

     B: Neither do I!

If you want to practise a bit more, click here for an exercise online.

PARAPHRASING

We also learnt what we can do when in the middle of a conversation we don't know a word that we need. Make sure you revise those expressions!

It's someone who...
It's a place where...
It's a type of...
It's the opposite of...
It's similar to...
It's how you feel when...
Etc.

WORK

We also learnt how to talk about jobs and the world of work. Be careful with the following expressions because they are different in Spanish.

A: How long does it take you to get to work?

B: It takes me around/about 20 minutes.

If you want to practise the vocabulary a bit more, below you have a listening activity with some jobs (the answers are at the end). Click here for the audio.

Jobs

FREE TIME

We also talked about what the Spanish and the English do in their free time, and we revised vocabulary related to sports and also adverbs of frequency. If you want to revise the position of frequency adverbs in the sentence, click here.

Here you have a listening about students going to the USA to travel and/or work. Try to complete the gaps in the conversation.

WRITING

In Unit 1 you wrote two compositions: your profile (page 7) and an informal letter (Porfolio 1). Please, learn the structure of an informal letter and the useful expressions you can use.


So there you have the basics of Unit 1! I hope the links help you to revise a little bit and to practise your listening!