The future

As you asked me, there it goes the grammar slides picturing the uses of the future, so you can revise everything.

The future from Míriam

Also, the cards from the game we played in class.

Can technology solve our big problems?

For next week, you'll have to watch (again) the speech of Jason Pontin analyzing how technology could solve problems, but sadly it's not the case. On Monday, we'll correct your answers to these questions:

JASON PONTIN – Can technology solve our big problems? - TED TALKS (Feb '13)

1.     How many technological advances of the 20^th century are mentioned?

2.     According to JFK, why did the Apollo 11 go to the moon?

3.     What are technologists doing instead of trying to solve humanity's big problems?

4.     Why haven't we gone to Mars yet?

5.     According to Pontin, what's the actual cause of famines?

Try not to use the script after you've finished, read it after the exercise: "Can technology solve our big problems?" script.

Idioms and collocations. Do you know them all?

Today's post deals with idioms and collocations around the topic of technology and inventions. I've prepared some activities and slides for you to practise and get familiar with them. Technology Idioms

You can revise them before or after the activity, but I recommend to try ding the activity first. When you finish, have a look at the following slides.

Technology idioms from Míriam

When you're done with the idioms, try collocations and have fun! Technology collocations

New meanings for a new era

It's a curious thing how we take ordinary words and give them a brand new meaning so as to adapt them to modern times. This happens mostly in technology and science. Some examples we've seen in class, and it would be great if you could revise them going through the next slides and playing the matching game.

Computing concepts vs ordinary meaning from Míriam

Reinvented words

Are we addicted to our phones?

Hello! Today we started talking about social media, and the use we make of them, together with our smartphones. We had an enjoyable discussion while watching the movie made from the fantastic poem by Gary Turk. Enjoy it again if you want! You can find the lyrics on his website.

To add a humouristic touch, we also watched and completed a song by Rhett & Link, two youtubers who satirize the use we make of phones nowadays.

Next you'll find the failed fixed vocabulary activities that we used for the poem. You already know my mistake, so sorry! I'll try to do some research in order to fix them. I need to find out how they work!

Look Up

Writing a report

This unit's writing task is a report. Another formal text which requires elevated language and formal structures.

To complement the activities of our book, I've designed a guide compiling the main lines to follow when writing a report. Moreover, you'll find a copy of the sample text included in your book, with some interesting constructions highlighted, so that you can see more clearly the things you must take into account.

Use of english the passive ex 123 from Míriam

The PDF version can be downloaded here.

The Emancipation of Prince

Are you dog lovers? Maybe not, but many are, right? And some breeds become instantly (and inexplicably) popular for some reason.

Chiuauas are one of those. Irritable as they may seem, possessive or skittish, this particular chiuaua protagonist of the story, is learned and highly intelligent. Unfortunately for him, his owner is not so, and that's why he'll try to get rid of her.

Feel free to watch the short film (again) and acquire some formal vocabulary completing the gapped trasncript.

For some extra work, there's a worksheet about pets by LinguaHouse that you can complete: Keeping pets. It includes a lexis task, an article and its correspondent comprehension exercise. Enjoy!