The missing week

Hi everyone,
I haven't forgotten you, and so I'm giving you a few things to do here.
First, I promised you comma rules. Well, I googled and found an excellent site with rules. Be aware that they are US, so the names may be slightly different, and the rules themselves may be slightly different, but are relativized where ever this is the case. Rules for comma usage is also now under the links. There are exercises as well.
And here's one more place if you prefer: OWL (On-line Writing Lab) Using Commas

So here are a few things for you to do on your Tuesday away from the classroom:
You can continue on through unit 3 of both the Workbook and the Student's Book. There is also a revision at the end of unit 3 in the Workbook.

In the SB pg 41 there is an experiment. Try it out and write about your results here. Also comment on what others have said. Use the language of age while doing this.

Tomorrow evening, get in touch with someone and call them - or have a drink together!!! - and speak only English. You could once again choose one section from the speaking phrases and try to use them while doing it.
Or you could chat with each other on Skype, MSN, Yahoo, or whatever platform you use.

And there is still a task on the last post I wrote that no one has yet completed- review one of the links on the side bar.

If you don't feel like talking to anyone, then grab a good book and read it, or go to the movies - this could also be with others from the course! Then you can talk about it or leave a review about it here.

So many things to do :-)

Finally, as you can see, I've given you quite a few possibilities to practice your writing. Please do so. I'm a bit behind in correcting since I took the pleasure of enjoying myself an entire weekend long, but I'm trying to catch up quickly, and it's always good to write.

As my Uncle Fred used to say, "You can't swallow the slab of ham before you chew it."

As for my speech, I'm not that far yet. It looks like I'll be working on that on the train. In any case, I'll let you know how it went, so keep an eye on the blog :-)

Some more stuff to do

I have another couple of things for you to do while you await the next lesson.

First, you could go out and get one or both of the books to read. I was thinking about making sure we've decided and that everyone has the book by Christmas holiday (coming soon enough!)

So we will need to decide soon. Why don't you leave a comment to state which book you want to read (first).

I also promised a link to the wiki here, but it is on the side bar: http://caewords.wikispaces.com/Word+forms

And yet something else to do: Try out one of the links for language learning and leave a review on the blog for everyone, saying how useful this particular link is and what it can help you with.

And finally, here are some answers for you:

Spiders:
1-E; 2-H; 3-I; 4-D; 5-G
6+7- yeast+bacteria
8-protein; 9-chemical solvents; 10- (small) holes; 11- (the/a) (solid) fibre/fiber;
12-False; 13- true; 14- not given

Progress test 1-3
1: 1-death; 2- complications; 3- romantic; 4- every; 5- dancing; 6- villainous; 7- major; 8- remembered (18 points)

2: 1-b; 2-d; 3-c; 4-b; 5-c; 6-b; 7-c; 8-a; 9-b; 10-d; 11-a; 12-d (12 points)

3: a- on behalf of; b- set up; c- grateful I am for; d- to my taste; e-on the cards; f- made his mark; g-In addition to; h-are just around the corner; i- break up; j- in the long run (10 points)

4: a-reliable; b- tactful; c- contribution; d-inquisitive; e-hesitation; f-caring; g-recognition; h- unforgettable; i- carelessly; j- requirements; k-indicator; l- decisive (12 points)


Stay tuned for more!

Comma rules to come!

Link to the future

I found this link to help you out with your future forms (remember, although they are often called tenses, there are no real future tenses!)
www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com

Water Music

You are all doing a great job of using the blog, and I can imagine this will be a great tool for when we start discussing the books set for the CAE. I suggest we decide on which one to read first (you can leave your preference as a comment here) and then agree on when to begin reading or finish reading.

In the meanwhile, I've also been reading and would like to tell you about a book that was pretty juicy. I read Water Music by T.C Boyle, who is always good for a juicy reading!

The book is set in the late 19th century and Africa is a place of mystery. A couple of explorers have already set out to find the source of the Nile, but have failed to come back due to sickness or other more human causes.

When Mr Mungo Park is asked to go in search of the source of the Nile, he goes with a native Moor, Johnson, who has been living in England long enough as a slave, and then free man, to learn to appreciate the written word, including those of Shakespeare and others. In other words, he has become very literate.

Parallel to this historical story (bent a bit at both ends for the sake of fiction), the story of Mr Ned Rise is blended in. This is a man who was born in the scum of London and, although he always reached for higher aims, kept falling back into the scum of which he was made.

It takes quite a while for their fates to cross, but both live very eventful lives (and deaths of various kinds).

I won't tell you anything else of the plot, but it is loosely based on the real explorer of the same name.

This story leads you into the depths of a very scary and malignant Africa, yet keeps you laughing at each bum turn Mungo or Ned takes. It is humor at its blackest, and even the renowned author Salman Rushdie claims it's better than getting drunk. I don't know if I agree with that statement, but it certainly is enjoyable.

Having said that, the level of English is quite high. If you decide to read it and start getting stuck on the language, then go for the German. It would be a shame to miss out on the irony of thes story.

If any of you have read this story, or another other that's been written about here for that matter, leave a message stating what you thought about the book.

Gasparone

‘Gasparone’ review

During this autumn I’m spending the most of my freetime on the stage as a ballet dancer in the operetta ‘Gasparone’. That’s a good reason to write a review about this two hundred years-old thieve-story.

In Sicily, Benezzo, a mischievous landlord and his smuggler friends have spread the rumour that ‘Gasoparone’, a legendary robber, would practise his attacks in their region. While everybody is looking for the not subsisted ‘Gasparone’ the band of smugglers can do their duty without any suspicion.
If this were not enough, Benezzo also helps count Erminio to capture the heart of the beautiful, but engaged countess Charlotta. Together with the rumour of ‘Gasoparone’ all this results in a funny confusion story and Benezzo always gets a bit deeper into trouble and has to invent more noncredible excuses.

‘Gasparone’ is an utterly entertaining operetta with a good mixture of humour, love and profoundly moving singing and pieces of music. It lets you dive into the world and feelings of the 19th century in an extraordinary way. During the first act the audience have the opportunity to develop sympathy or antipathy for the main figure which let them fight together with the figures in the play for a good end.

Although ‘Gasparone’ is an old story, it’s exactly the opposite of a dead story.
Translating the topic of the play into the modern world let you show a lot of actuality. I found much more common ground with today as I’ve ever expected during our intensive rehearsals in the last few mouths. And that’s a good reason to let live up ‘Gasparone’ in your heart.



Yvonne Schmidiger, October 08

Trial test

I just found this link and thought it might interest you, especially if you are unsure of your level.

Test your English

It is a test of your English.
Let me know how hlepful it is!

my working-holidays

Hi my classmates

I'm looking forward to meet you again at school!
I needed my holidays to work a lot at home to settle me in in my new flat (before I didn't have the time). So I'm happy now and I don't have to live out of different boxes! :-)
I also had to work a lot for my class, because I didn't had a lot of time last summer holidays (as I told you, I've been in England for practising my English).
But of course, I enjoyed my holidays, too. I took everyday a little time to set a little highlight on this day. For example, I invited friends for dinner or on a other day I took a massage or bought me "Cremeschnitten" for pudding :-)

See you this evening!

A lot of greats

Yvonne

Greetings from Alex

dear classmates

when i saw these wonderful pictures on the blog i felt motivated to send you a short impression from my last summer holiday trip in namibia.it was my second time in namibia but i've never been in the northern part before.

I travelled from windhuk to the northern part of namibia with a 4 wheel drive car, something like a jeep! it was more than just a car, we could also sleep inside the car in a "roof tent" and the whole camping equipment was inside the car, that we were able to cook our own food. we were aware of not having fresh water, showers or toilets. but we knew that nothing would be a big problem or impossible for us, if we had a good organisation. at the beginning we bought a lot of fresh food and still water and put it on our fridge in the car.since then our car was our home...

i was astonished how different the northern and the southern part of namibia were. whereas the southern has the biggest sand dunes from all over the world, the northern is much more rude and you get a better chance to observe the animals. fortunately we saw the "big 5 "and took a lot of potographs.

during the night i felt quite safe in my roof tent and that was more than helpful because there were no fences and the wild animals came easily to our fireplace while we were asleep.

one day we met a man called marius who live there since he was child. he offered us to visit some of "his friends". they werent friends as you and me because they still live in their old tradition. they called "himba". marius told us a lot about these people and how they live. after these day i felt privileged to saw something like that.

now i hope you will enojoy the photographs. ( thanks illya to put them on the blog)

kind regards

alexandra

Greetings from Croatia

Hi everyone
After a great time in Croatia and then a very busy working weekend, I've finally had time to come and see what's on the blog.
WOW!
I am so impressed by the posts on here and it's really thrilling to see the pictures and read about the holidays, books and other messages you've left here.

So now it's my turn.
The 2 weeks in Croatia were lovely with only rainy day. We went swimming amost every day, but it was rather chilly both in the water and in the air. The beaches are rocky or are pebbly beaches, but we did manage to find one sandy beach, as you can see :-D

Although I love Sardinia, the one thing I miss there is abound in Croatia - culture. It's everywhere! The towns and cities are just full of history and the cities went through different rulerships. Of course, Venetian towners are everywhere.

The city of Dubrovnik was a highlight. By now I've seen quite a few cities in Europe, but never anything like this. It is so old and built differently than any other city I've ever seen. It's as old as Rome too. The scars of war are still visible, however, as they are in the countryside.

On the way to the lovely national parks they have we drove by several fields which are still infested by mines from the Yugoslavian war.

The Croatian people are very friendly and you are treated as a guest there, and the seafood is delicious. I also brought home honey with nuts in it - a delightful speciality of the area, along with olive oil and good wine.

Book review: The Notebook

As the holiday began I promised myself to read an english book. In the past I have startet many books to read but unfortunately I 've rarely ended them, because I hadn't got the patience.

A friend of mine advised me to read "The Notebook", written by Nicholas Sparks. So I began to read this book. I was really surprised by me, because in two days I' ve finished it.
I'd like to give you a review of this book. If you like to read a romantic love story I recommend you to read this book.

summary:
Noah has recently returned from the Second World War. He is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier.
One day Allie returns unexpectedly to his town, to see him again before she gets married with Lon. Lon is a nice man who loves Allie, but Allie never had the same deep feelings for Lon, like she had for Noah in this summer, fourteen years ago.
As Allie and Noah see each other, the feelings start growing again. Allie is forced to make a decision. Could she really disappoint Lon? Should she stay with Noah for who she feels deep emotion and love?
Allie decides to stay with Noah. They spend a wonderful life together.

I don't want to tell you the end. I know, it seems like the story is finished by spending a wonderful life together. But if you read this book you 'll see there is a turning point, which makes this book so joyful and tragic at the same time.

Holidays in Sardinia

Hi dear classmates


As you know, I was in Sardinia for a couple of days with my family. For the first time in my live I travelled with a big ferry, which was very impressive. Our flat was in a little village, called Santa Maria Navarrese, on the east cost of Sardinia.




It's a lovely place with a little beach and very old and famous olive trees. There were also big cacti with fruits we could eat.




The area around Arbatax, the city with the harbour where we arrived, is known for its red rocks. The whole island is very rocky and dry and the cliffs are washed out by the sea. I was told that it is a volcano island.






As you can imagine, I spent hours laying on the beach. Often I was reading in my chilling English novel about the dark secrets of Dracula's life.


Unfortunately, time went much too fast. I wished, I could have been there for a longer time ...


But at least I went back home very relaxed.

Now, I'm going to do my English homework. :)

See you soon

Fredy

Biking around Brig, Wallis, Switzerland

Dear English students of our class
As a conscientious student, I do my homework and put a note of my holidays on the blog.
Our daughter, my husband and I went to Brig by train. With the new basic tunnel through the "Lötschberg" the trip from Lucerne to Brig takes only about 2 hours and 15 mintutes!
At Brig, we went on different bike trips. A well known place we biked up to is "Belalp". From there you have a great view to the glacier of Aletsch.
Another day we biked towards the Simplon-pass but after one hour or so, we went to the right on an Alp, left our bikes there and hiked up for another 1000 meters to the top of the "Glishorn". Our daughter was very motivated doing a lot of sport and persuaded us to this big effort, at the end of the day, we had made 2500 meters of height!
My husband had found many bike-ideas on the internet and some of them we tried out. The most impressing experience for me was, when we were biking for 1,600km through a little tunnel, build for the transport of water. The water was running on our left in a wooden channel, the tunnel was dark, the unterground was hard sand and the space for riding our bikes was about 1 meter of width.
On Friday, our last day, we had a rest and went on a guided tour through the palace of "Stockalper". Stockalper was a successful business man in the 17th century.
The weather had turned cold and we went home.
I am looking forward to hearing from your holidays!
See you the week after next week.
Gabi Kuhn

How are you???

Hello everyone!

How are you doing? And what are you doing?
I'm wondering how your holidays are.

For me everything is just too much!!! I don't know where to take the time for all things I want to do... and tomorrow I'm going to Greek!!!

I'm looking forward to it. I' ve never been there before and I've never done holidays like I do now.

I made the choice to take only english books with me. I'll see how it works.

Otherwise I haven't done any english homework yet... It's not right! I' m sorry for telling you such a lie!!! I'm writing something for you :-) just now!!!!

I love English... especially talking :-) My writing is very bad. Illya encouraged me just to write, it doesn't matter how many mistakes I do. Just the writing is important. That's why I 'm writing... even I would prefere to write adequate!!! So maybe someone of you 'd like to help me in improving my English. Please let me know about my mistakes I've done... I 'm open and motivated to learn. So don't be shy and write to me:

marinakaufmann@gmx.ch

Thanks for your answer!!!

Actually I 've got two questions already: What's the diffrence between "if" and "when"?
and what's the difference between "as" and "like"

For sure one of you can explane it to me. So thank you for doing it. Otherwise I will bother you in the classroom :-)

See you soon again!!!
Love
Marina

CAE link

I just found a link that looks pretty good on the Oxford website.
It is chalk full of exercises to try out.
Let me know what you think of it.

Holidays

As I write this, one of you will be on holiday already. This picture is dedicated to you :-)
Others will be going away soon to other places, while still others may be staying home, hoping to get lots of things done during the coming two weeks.

I've left ideas for all of you to do, whether you go away or stay here. Look at the different exams, try out links, or write us a postcard while enjoying life at the beach, etc.

The idea is that using your English is even more important than practicing it. Sharing with each other is more valuable than doing something that is only for the sake of the teacher. That's the way I see it anyway.

I'm hoping that by the next lesson there will be more here than my own posts. A post can lead to discussion, so for example, if you don't agree with my statement above, say so! Write a comment expressing your opinion or dedicate an entire post to it.

But most of all, enjoy the two weeks of freedom you have. Get a book and relax in the sun, or go to the movies and have a good time with friends.

I'll be glad to see you all again in mid-October!!!

comments or posts?

HI everyone
Even someone like me runs dry.
Do any of you want to add something here? A question, a story, an invitation, anything at all!

I'm learning about social networking, so have lots of ideas now to bother you with ;-)

See you next week!

The "Nature" of Words

In class we quickly looked at words and problems involved in choosing the write word form. One example I gave was 'nature'.

You can see how words are used, and especially what words often come before and after these words by using a concordancer. A concordancer is a tool that accesses a HUGE databank of language that has been collected from many sources. The word is found and you get a list of excerpts using this word.

I tried it with 'whereas' and these are the first 10:

001.NO. 1 NEWBURY PORT, MAY 30TH, 1791_"WHEREAS, a Bridge over Merrimack River, from
002. displeasure.You treat the matter lightly -- WHEREAS I myself was never more serious." "I t
003. escribed by Bonifacio and Lugiato {7}, WHEREAS the Ikeda degeneracy splits to yield puls
004. extraordinary effort to lift himself up by it", (23) WHEREAS Joe Gargery endures the shrewish onslaugh
005. rtrays the proximal radial epiphysis for boy 34,WHEREAS the same epiphysis for girl 2 is portrayed
006. military National Guard, they number only 4,400, WHEREAS the normal US garrison of about 10,000 me
007. tribes of south-west Siberia referred to above. WHEREAS in sparsely populated regions of the north
008. ice Frankfurter's famous doctrine of abstention.WHEREAS the earlier cases turned rather narrowly u
009. effectively got a dead short through an ammeterWHEREAS a a volt meter's got a a hun , a high er r
010. "ticks"' with eachtick equal to &formula;% and WHEREAS, prior to October 1986, a typical spread

I also found out that 'but' and 'that' are the most common words before 'whereas' and 'the' is the most common after the word. (stated at the bottom)
You can choose the corpus, which is the place the language is collected.

So play around with 'nature' and see what comes up. There is another concordancer in the list in the links. Maybe you can compare which you think is most useful. Should I put both in? Should I use only the link from here? Let me know.

Finally, in the links you have one that say 'synonyms and antonyms'. This is very useful for expanding your vocabulary. Have a look at it and the 3 possibilitites, namely to find words with similar meanings, to find words with opposite meanings, and to find definitions.

great blog!

Dear Illya

this blog is really great, thank you so much for doing it. I have looked up some of the useful sites and they are really helpful, thanks for this again. Days should have more then 24 hours, at least 2 or 3 hours extra for learning English... for the case, that you find a special site, witch helps install such an extra-time, please tell me :-)

so, I'll leave you now, have to do some homework....

Greets
Maria

Rorschach blot tests

Okay, here's another task for you.

What do you see? Leave a comment (or leave another blot to comment on :-) )
and then you can also 'analyse' the meanings behind what others see.

If you're up for a bit of fun, this could be quite amusing!
To see what it reall is, read here.

New links and other news

As you can see, I've added the newest homework to the side, and I wrote Oxford University Press to see what they have to say about the key to the Student's Book. Please have patience. I'll also get the answers to the grammar section to you soon.

I've added a couple of links to the side bar.

FAQs for your questions, and your answers or suggestions are equally welcome. They are first on the list at the wiki.

Then I've found an excellent blog called Daily English Activities. The activities are all online, giving you a lot more practice in listening and you get the visual effects as well.

Then there's the Vokker link Maria gave us (thanks, Maria!) to collect vocabulary.

Finally, how ever do you keep up with the newest additions? Do you have to keep going back to them again and again? Do you forget the links too?
There is something called RSS (really simple syndication) that lets you know when blogs, wikis or other websites have been updated. The easiest and most practical I've found is: http://feedblitz.com/
This sends you an e-mail to let you know that there is something new on the sites you are interested in. If you are more advanced, then the best one I know of is Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/
but you have to open the program to see if there is anything new.

You'll find these all in the links - happy surfing :-)