Reported speech exercise

Review of reported speech from Ana Arias Castro

Compare these people

Compare these people from Ana Arias Castro

Healthy life

Exercise by Fit Approach

Read these websites and design a questionnaire about health, food and exercise. Write 10-15 questions to make a questionnaire.

Concentrate on the most important aspects included in these websites:

1. Livewell
2. Healthline
3. Medicinenet

GROUP 1

GROUP 2

GROUP 3

What are they doing?

Image from https://www.tes.com/lessons/fMf0WmFUFvB8LQ/present-continuous

Image from http://myenglishclass.altervista.org/category/present-simplepresent-continuous/

Image from https://www.tes.com/lessons/fMf0WmFUFvB8LQ/present-continuous

Step challenge

Do & Make

These are some of the differences between these two verbs:

For a longer list of expressions with both do and make, have a look at Better EFL Teacher or at the BBC Website.

EXERCISES:

• English at Home
• ESL about
• Learn English Today

Saxon genitive

It is a structure that indicates possession:

FORM

• Add 's after the possessor:
• Mandy's car
• The women's room
• The queen's jewels
• Add 's after the plural and after endings in 's':
• My friends' house
• Her granparents' car
• Lewis' job
• Frances' boat
• Add 's after the possessor's name, or use a possessive pronoun:
• A friend of my mother's (=one of my mother's friends)
• A friend of your teachers' (=one of your teachers' friends)
• Some expression take the possessive form (without the noun):
• We went to Peter's
• At the Simpson's
• At the doctor's
• Macy's

USE

• It tends to be used if possessors are people, animals or institutions:
• the cat's tail
• Mary's supermarket
• the government's proposal
• But remember:
• the leg of the table
• the end of the process
• the boot of the car

EXERCISE

Now try to describe who's who in the British Royal family:

taken from http://www.henry4school.fr/UK/monarchy/pdf/The%20British%20Royal%20Family%20Tree.pdf

Weather forecast

This activity has been designed for you to get some specific information from the following YouTube video. Click here and get to the activity.

Reading Comprehension exercise: Back Together

Read the text and answer the following questions:

Back Together

Tamara Rabi had no idea Adriana Scott existed until students at a university in Long Island began confusing her with the other girl. The girls were born in Mexico and then adopted by different sets of parents in the US. Tamara grew up with Jewish parents on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Adriana was raised a Catholic in a Long Island suburb of the city. But each girl had no idea she had a twin until Tamara moved to Long Island.  

In 2003 a friend of Adriana's turned up at Tamara's 20th birthday party and could not believe his eyes. Tamara had already noticed how some people on her university campus smiled and said hello, clearly mistaking her for somebody else.

In 2004 they decided to meet so Tamara contacted Adriana by email and soon afterwards they met in a car park. "I didn't know what to say, except hi. I was just in shock to see myself", says Adriana. The funny thing is that they grew up just 20 miles apart.

“We have the same mannerisms, the same interests, the same grades in school," Adriana says.

"We had the same dream when we were younger. It was a nightmare... A really loud noise, followed by a real quiet one," adds Tamara.

Adriana's mother was the only family member on either side who knew she had a twin, but she had no idea where she might be. After agonising over it, she kept it secret to avoid the pain of a possibly fruitless search - a judgement which Adriana agrees with.

"In some ways it's the best of both worlds, as I have a sister but I haven't grown up in a state of sibling rivalry," she says.  

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3343763.stm

1. True or false:
• In 2004, Tamara met Adriana.
• Tamara met Adriana at a party.
• Tamara and Adriana are similar.
• Adriana knew she had a twin even before she met Tamara.
• The two girls grew up in different countries.
• They want to be rivals.
2. Answer the following questions:
• Why did people at university stare at them?
• How did Tamara contact Adriana?
• How are Tamara and Adriana similar? Give two examples.
• Why didn't Adriana's mother tell her about her sister?
• How do the girls feel about each other today?
3. Key to this exercise

Nelson Mandela - Reading comprehension activity

Read the text and find the following information about Mandela:

• Where was he born?
• How old was he when he died?
• How long did he stay in prison?
• What important prize was he awarded?

Look up the following words or expressions:

• apartheid:
• involved:
• life imprisonment:

Write a short text saying why Nelson Mandela became such an important reference worldwide and send it to your teacher.

Nelson Mandela (text fromhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/nelson_mandela)

Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on 18 July 1918 and was given the name of Nelson by one of his teachers. His father Henry was a respected advisor to the Thembu royal family.

ANC involvement

Mandela was educated at the University of Fort Hare and later at the University of Witwatersrand, qualifying in law in 1942. He became increasingly involved with the African National Congress (ANC), a multi-racial nationalist movement trying to bring about political change in South Africa.

In 1948, the National Party came to power and began to implement a policy of 'apartheid', or forced segregation on the basis of race. The ANC staged a campaign of passive resistance against apartheid laws.

In 1952, Mandela became one of the ANC's deputy presidents. By the late 1950s, faced with increasing government discrimination, Mandela, his friend Oliver Tambo and others began to move the ANC in a more radical direction. In 1956, Mandela went on trial for treason. The court case lasted five years, and ended with Mandela being acquitted.

Sharpeville

In March 1960, 69 black anti-apartheid demonstrators were killed by police at Sharpeville. The government declared a state of emergency and banned the ANC. In response, the organisation abandoned its policy of non-violence and Mandela helped establish the ANC's military wing 'Umkhonto we Sizwe' or 'The Spear of the Nation'. He was appointed its commander-in-chief and travelled abroad to receive military training and to find support for the ANC.

Life imprisonment

On his return he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. In 1963, Mandela and other ANC leaders were tried for plotting to overthrow the government by violence. The following year Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was held in Robben Island prison, off the coast of Cape Town, and later in Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland. During his years in prison he became an international symbol of resistance to apartheid.

In 1990, the South African government responded to internal and international pressure and released Mandela, at the same time lifting the ban against the ANC. In 1991 Mandela became the ANC's leader.

A respected global statesman

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with FW de Klerk, then president of South Africa, in 1993. The following year South Africa held its first multi-racial election and Mandela was elected its first black president.

In 1998, he was married for the third time to Graça Machel, the widow of the president of Mozambique. Mandela's second wife, Winnie, whom he married in 1958 and divorced in 1996, remains a controversial anti-apartheid activist.

In 1997 he stepped down as ANC leader and in 1999 his presidency of South Africa came to an end.

In 2004, Mandela announced his retirement from public life, although his charitable work continued. On 29 August 2007, a permanent statue to him was unveiled in Parliament Square, London.

He died on 5 December 2013, aged 95.

Past simple and past continuous

In this unit we are going to revise the form and uses of past simple and past continuous. These two common tenses are often used in the same paragraph so it is useful to pay attention to the differences both in form and use:

Past simple boy (from www.isabelperez.com)
Lady past continuous (from www.isabelperez.com)
Choose the right tense exercise (perfect-english-grammar.com)
Revision exercise for unit 2 (past simple / past continuous / jobs / questions)
Shakira's life (past simple exercise)

How to tell the time in English

If you want to know the time there are some ways of asking it:

• What's the time?
• What time is it?
• Can you tell me the time?

And this is how you can tell what time it is:

from http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/vocabulary/time

• 03:00 - It's three o'clock.
• 03:05 - It's five past three
• 03:10 - It's ten past three
• 03:15 - It's quarter past three
• 03:20 - It's twenty past three
• 03:25 - It's twenty-five past three
• 03:30 - It's half past three
• 03:35 - It's twenty-five to four
• 03:40 - It's forty to four
• 03:45 - It's quarter to four
• 03:50 - It's ten to four
• 03:55 - It's five to four
• 04:00 - It's four o'clock

If you have to tell other times you will have to mention "minutes"
And this is an exercise for you to practise telling the time.

• 02:24 - It's twenty-four minutes past two

Prepositions of time

On, in and at are the three most common prepostions of time. These are the rules for using them correctly:

ON

• days of the week: Sunday, Wednesday
• dates : 5th October 2015
• specific dates: Christmas day
• parts of a day: Sunday morning, Wednesday evening

IN

• months: July, December
• the four seasons: (the) spring, summer, autumn, winter
• years: 2014, 2053, 1833
• parts of the day: the morning, the afternoon, the evening

AT

• night
• the weekend
• Christmas, Easter
• times: 5 o'clock, 9:45
• the moment
• present

MORE PRACTICE:

• Grammar sheet
• Exercise 1
• Exercise 2

ESL / EFL Reported Speech

GENERAL RULES FOR REPORTED SPEECH

• Tenses change from present to past (if we are talking about what somebody said in the past):
  • “I am 15.” - He said he was 15.
  • “We have a problem.” - They said they had a problem.
  • “I can swim.” - She said that she could swim.
  • “She comes by bus.” - He said that she came by bus.
  • “Your sister doesn’t like pizza.” - She said that my sister didn’t like pizza.
  • “You are looking through the window.” - He said that I was looking through the window.
  • “They will probably fail.” - She said that they would probably fail.
  • “My mother saw a mouse.” - She said that her mother had seen a mouse.
• Personal pronouns change (if somebody is telling
  what somebody else has said before):
  
  • “I am 15.” - He said he was 15.
  • “My mother saw a mouse.” - She said that her mother had seen a mouse.
  • “We saw you at the cinema.” - They said that they had seen me at the cinema.
• Place and time complements have to be adapted to the new context:
• He came here.” - They said that he had gone there. 
• “It’s raining today” - Jake said that it was raining then / yesterday.
• “I saw you last week.” - She said that she had seen me the week before.

STATEMENTS

• Tell and say are common reporting verbs. (Tell is used before an indirect object.):
• She said that she liked pizza.
• My mother told me to go with her.
• Everyone said that the lesson was very difficult.
• He told his friends about my illness.

• Other verbs can be used: know, promise, insist, warn...
• That can be omitted after say:
• She said that she liked pizza. - She said she liked pizza.
• They knew that he liked her. - They knew she liked her.

QUESTIONS

• Typical reporting verbs are: ask, wonder, want to know.
• He wanted to know the opening times of the museum.
• She wondered how old my mother was.
• If the question is answered with yes or no, if should be introduced before the indirect question:
• My sister asked if you wanted to come with us.
• I wondered if she was watching the programme on TV.
• Subject always comes before the verb:
• She asked me how old I was.

IMPERATIVES

• We use ask / tell + object + (not) + to + infinitive to say what people want(ed) us to do:

• “Please, open the window.” - She asked us to open the window.

• “Tidy your room.” - My father told me to tidy my room.

• “Don’t smoke here.” - My aunt asked me not to smoke in her car.

DOWNLOAD THIS SHEET AND  EXERCISES

ONLINE EXERCISES

Subject & object questions

Most questions are object questions. They ask about an object.
Where do you live?
Who did you see? 

And there are also subject questions. Questions we ask to find out about the subject. These questions are asked using 'who', 'what' and 'which'.  
Who plays football in this class?
What happened?
Which machine did Marconi invent? 

You can take a look at the following chart of question forms:

Form	Examples
Object Questions wh- + auxiliary + subject + main verb	Where do you live? What will you do? When is she coming?
Subject Questions wh- (=subject) + auxiliary + main verb   Notice that this structure is like affirmative sentence structure without the question word.	Who loves you? Which car will arrive first? What type of food costs less?

Now, try this Hot Potatoes exercise and choose the correct question.

Past simple tense

When is the past simple tense used?

• For completed action in the past (We saw your sister yesterday.)
• For a series of completed actions (I woke up, had a shower, had breakfast and went to school.)
• For longer actions that start and stop in the past; time expressions usually go with it (My sister lived in London for years.)
• For talking about habits which stopped in the past (She studied Japanese when she was in high school.)
• For past facts or generalizations (Old people never played football.)

How is it made?

• Positive sentence → Subject + verb+ ed or irregular form (I played with her.- She came with us.)
• Questions → Auxiliary verb + subject +verb (Did they read the story?)
• Negative sentence → Subject + auxiliary verb + verb ( I didn’t like it.) 

 More practice

•  Irregular verb forms (translations are in French)
• Isabel Perez - grammar and practice
• Verb tense quizz
• Writing sentences in order (Isabel Pérez)
• Fernando Alonso text (Isabel Pérez)
• Shakira's life (Isabel Pérez)
• Thanksgiving day (Isabel Pérez)

ESL / EFL revision of present simple and present continuous

By now you have probably learnt a lot about present simple and present continuous and when you should use each of them. If you need further help you might try these exercises or ask your teacher which other activities might help you use them properly.  Take your time to learn them and try using them orally and in texts.  

Basically, we use present simple for:     

•  things that are always true (The sun rises in the east.)     
•  things that happen all the time, repeatedly, often, sometimes, never… (She often wears red.)      
• Some verbs are normally used in simple tenses: hate, know,like, love, need, prefer, seem understand, want... (I hate this music. /Do you understand?)  

And we use present continuous for:       

• things that are happening now. (The sun is not shining today.)     
•  things that are happening around now (I’m  playing a lot of tennis these days.)      
• plans for a fixed future time or place. (What are you doing this evening?) 

You may find some extra practice in all these sites:     

• Isabel Pérez       
• KiCo4U.de (Hot Potatoes exercise-choose the right tense)     
• dl.dropbox.com (Gap filling exercise)     
•  ICT for students of EFL      
• Printable sheet from Burlington books (look for ESO-4 activities or ask your teacher for a free copy) 

ESL / EFL irregular verbs in English

If you have to study the list of irregular verbs in English, here you are some good resources for you to download ans practise:

• the list of the 100 most common irregular verbs
• the mp3 audio file for the list above
• some exercises for further practice
• a list of 211 irregular verbs

And remember that learning the full list will help you increase your vocabulary and avoid grammar errors.

Prepositions of time: ON-IN-AT - Hot Potatoes exercise

This is a new Hot Potatoes exercise for you to text if you have already learnt how to use these commonly used prepositions. 

Hot Potatoes grammar exercises

The Grammar and exercises page in this blog contains some useful grammar pdf sheets to help you revise and understand several difficult grammar points studied in secondary education English classes.There are also some Hot Potatoes exercises that you can do in order to check how the learning process is going.
These are the grammar points that you will find resources for:

• be / have / there is / there are / present simple (Hot Potatoes)
• some / any ( Hot Potatoes)
• personal pronouns (Hot Potatoes)
• summary of tenses ESO-3 (pdf) and exercises (pdf)
• tenses in detatil (pdf)
• comparatives and superlatives (pdf)
• passive voice ( pdf)
• reported speech (pdf) and exercises (Hot Potatoes)
• modal verbs (pdf)

All the pdf documents and downloadable and printable.