poppies

poppies

18.12.10

ALL LEVELS: AUDIO STORIES

This link will prove useful to those of you who need to improve pronunciation.
Here you will find some classic tales read by a native speaker.
Since it also provides the texts ,the tales could be used in order to better your pronunciation.
You can try to read out loud some lines or a paragraph and then check your pronunciation with that of the narrator and try to imitate it.
Alternatively, you can just listen to the stories and enjoy them :-)


INTERMEDIO 2 GRAMMAR: PAST TENSES

hi guys,
if you feel you need to further study the past perfect and past perfect continuous, here are some links with explanation and grammar:



and here is a quiz on past tenses :

AVANZADO 2 GRAMMAR

hi boys and girls,
check this link for interesting vocabulary (collocations, confusing words etc.)


and here is an Advanced grammar quiz test, if you feel up to testing your knowledge ;-)


see you in class :-9

15.12.10

AVANZADO 2 GAPPED TEXT


hi guys, here's a small exercise for you (courtesy of my colleague Martín).

Read this text excerpted from an entry in the blog of a Scotsman currently visiting Barcelona. Try to complete it without looking at the full text below.

Monday, 13 December 2010

Ricky Gervais, and Fish Sauce

On day 2 I was left to fend for myself in a city where I wasn’t sure which language I was supposed to speak, and spoke neither of them anyway. With my eternal shame of being a tourist, and especially an English-speaking one, this was a problem. I decided the best course of action would be to pass the day on activities involving the bare minimum human-to-human interaction. The morning would be spent in the Museum of History of Barcelona and the afternoon in the Picasso museum.

The main attraction of the MUHBA was its basement. The buildings …………….. the MUHBA were built …………. the remains of the Roman city of Barcino, ………… date from the 1st century BC to the 7th AD. The ………… sections of the museum I rather skipped through, but I was pleasantly surprised by the ruins. They are ………. more extensive than I expected, …………….. not only houses and shops, but a church, bishop’s palace, laundry, baths, wine production facility and fish sauce factory. The level of industrialisation is impressive and the remains are …………… preserved – much more than just walls and doorways – …………….. meant I could actually believe it when I ………… told what each building was used ……………... This was added to by the use of coloured lighting – blue in the baths and laundry, red in the fish sauce plant – although they could have made ………………… of this. The audio guide also explained the techniques of archaeology.



KEYS:

The main attraction of the MUHBA was its basement. The buildings housing the MUHBA were built above the remains of the Roman city of Barcino, which date from the 1st century BC to the 7th AD. The other sections of the museum I rather skipped through, but I was pleasantly surprised by the ruins. They are far more extensive than I expected, containing not only houses and shops, but a church, bishop’s palace, laundry, baths, wine production facility and fish sauce factory. The level of industrialisation is impressive and the remains are well preserved – much more than just walls and doorways – which meant I could actually believe it when I was told what each building was used for. This was added to by the use of coloured lighting – blue in the baths and laundry, red in the fish sauce plant – although they could have made more of this. The audio guide also explained the techniques of archaeology.

Now, you may want to check out the actual blog for a Scotsman’s fresh look at the Picasso Museum and Spanish TV.

9.12.10

AVANZADO 2 -FRONTING

hi boys and girls, here's a link to an English learning page (which is actually Italian, lol :-)
with online exercises on "fronting" . It's worth exploring the main page where you will find exercises classified according to grammar topics.
Enjoy it!