What Should I do?

I would say that I haven´t made many important decisions during my life but without a doubt, my career has been the most important. When I was 16 and I was about to finish my high school studies, I had to decide what I would do all my life. Once elected, I didn’t want to go back and forth to find I had made the wrong choice, so I had to think very carefully about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and decide in a few months.

On the first day of February, I had to start the process to be accepted by a university, and I did so even though I had not yet decided what to study. By the time it was the last day to choose, I decided to apply for dental school, however, after analyzing statistics I found that it was unlikely for me to be accepted. Therefore, I also applied for a place at IMSS Nursing School.

On the set date, I took the exam. I resolved that I would register in the faculty in which I got the required score, and if I didn’t approve either one, I would wait a year to try applying for another career. The day when the results were published, I was still in high school so I couldn't see them, but until I got home. 

Unexpectedly, I was accepted by the 3 schools I had applied to, making my decision a difficult one again. I asked my mom for help and after meditating for a week, I decided to enroll at the Dental School. At first, it was a drastic and difficult change, but after the first semester, I was fully adapted, and I like it as I never thought I would.

Big Party

I remember that during my childhood I used to visit my grandmother´s house once a month.  It was a huge and fascinating place to explore. In the courtyard, hundreds of plants and trees gave it a jungle look, there grew grapes, cucumbers, papaya, soursop, among other fruits. In the middle of the vast vegetation, there was a small chicken farm where I used to play.

I was in the playground with my cousin and my sister when I had the incredible idea of celebrating my birthday party there. Despite not knowing many people, I found it very clever to invite all of my grandmother's acquaintances as they could give me gifts.

The big day came, my parents, prepared everything in detail. My grandmother cooked and my aunt combed my hair while I was sitting on a chair feeling immense happiness. The smell of freshly made food captivated everyone who entered the house. I listened to the footsteps of the arriving guests and those of my cousins running into the house.

As I went out to greet all the guests, the sound of laughter and conversation flooded the environment. As I looked at the faces, I realized that not many of them were familiar to me, but I did not give importance to it since they all brought me gifts. It was a party full of fun and at the end of the night, I was sure I wanted to repeat that celebration. My sister and cousin helped me open the hundreds of gifts I received and I gave them some. I know it's a day I'll never forget because it reminds me of a lot of my grandmother and my parents who did everything they could do to see me happy.

Eco-houses / Freedom

Eco-houses

Nowadays, most of the houses in which we live are made of manufactured, processed, and industrialized materials in huge quantities so they are not in harmony with nature, and unfortunately, they harm the environment. Fortunately, in recent years a new concept of dwellings has been developing and it consists of creating ecological and sustainable houses that give us an ideal place to live without exhausting natural resources.

These residences are something that we never imagined before and it’s expected that soon eco-houses will become the latest thing. Eco-houses will be made from recycled materials, they will be close to achieving zero waste so you won’t anything throw away and the housing system will find a way to recycle or reuse everything. Also, they will have electricity from a ‘green’ supplier, renewable energy systems, such as solar thermal energy to provide all the basic services.

Due to the great advances that have been made in the construction of ecological houses, it is thought that shortly a greater number of such domiciles will be built for the local people. Their price will be accessible so it will be one of the best options for housing. In some countries like Australia, there are a lot of eco-houses, but recently it is common to find eco-apartments too so this trend is something that will grow shortly.

Freedom

Freedom is such a common word, easy to say and write, however, most of the time we don't give it the courage and deserves the recognition, but without a doubt, the hidden meaning behind it is shocking and important in the life of each person in this world.

For me, freedom is so complex that it not only the possibility to express ideas, feelings, thoughts, and opinions, but also the ability to choose from the simplest things as the clothes we want to wear, what we want to eat day by day, or a favorite color, to the most complex as the religion we want to practice, the work that we will do for the rest of our lives and even the place in the world where we want to live.

To sum up, freedom is the pleasure of being able to follow your heart.

The british iconic exhibition. Review

The fasinated exhibition who is everybody talking about is full of great  ideas but is not very dramatic     Visually .fifteen recent british inventions laid around the gallery with a little information about it.

However, some ideas exhibited there are quite interisting such as the mosquito alarm called hypersonic alarm who is an invation only for teeneagers. In the other side some inventations are not so cleaver or interisting like the electric bicycle or the baby bottle with atomic warmer .
Despite some invention are good or bad ,the information is interisting to note that some ideas have been inspired by young people as one  that just have  Eigth.

Difficult though the exhibition takes about ten minutes to go around,feeling dissapointed rather than inspired.

Finally the highligths is a section where people can write their Own Ideas

Iconic Exhibition: Magazine review

     This year the British Invention Exhibition shows odd and imaginative ideas but others not very dramatic visually. It's really interesting to find out laid around the gallery fifteen recent British inventions with a short information board on each. 
     Some of the ideas are interesting e.g. "Mosquito"  hypersonic alarm which only teenagers can hear. This gadget is used to stop teenagers from wandering where they aren't wanted. Some ideas not so captivating or original, e.g. electric bicycle, or baby bottle with automatic warmer. 
     On the other hand, it is alluring to notice the story behind the widget belonging to young people. One child was just eight when he suggested the idea to his father.
     All in all only takes about ten minutes to go around the whole exhibition, feeling a little flat rather than inspired. Sadly frustrating.

Exhibition: iconic inventions

The British gallery offers a free exhibition where you can know the stories behind the most famous inventions that revolutionazed the world.
The exhibition shows the original sketches up to the finished inventions.
There is fifteen recent inventions with short information too. There is a section when people give ideas to solution problems.

It only takes 10 minutes to go around the whole exhibition, some ideas aren't original but others are really facinating.

if you live near there, or you are  walking around the British library it's agood place to learn some curiosities.

Iconic Inventions

The hidden story behind the inventions that have changed the style of life has been revealed in the exhibition "iconic inventions".  The British Library allows access to all people absolutely free.

In the exhibition you can find recent British inventions along with brief information about their origin. During your tour you will find fascinating stories about the creation of the innovations, from carrying out the idea of an 8-year-old to special objects for teenagers.

Some of the ideas presented in the exhibition are not as creative  or eye-catching as we want so it will take only a few minutes to tour the entire exhibition.

If you would like to know about some of the most recent British inventions as well as their functionality in a short period of time,  it is definitely the place for you.

APRIL 4th CLASS

Good morning!

For today we have the following tasks:

Lesson 8.2 pgs. 96-97

• Finish exercises on Ellipsis and Substitution
• Vocabulary: Memories 
• Speaking: Talk about special memories
• Writing: A Personal Story - Learn to improve descriptive writing.

Lesson 8.3 pgs. 98 and 99

• Vocabulary: Collocations with Time
• Functional Language: Discussing Ideas and solicit more information
• Speaking: Ways of Saving time.

Ellipsis and Substitution:

Do exercise 6A in book page 96 - In each pair of sentences choose the correct alternative to complete the answers. Read the phrase with the word of your choice and make sure it makes sense.

Then, for exercise 6B, cross out any words that can be left out from the conversation without making it unintelligible.

Listen to check that your work is correct. The recording is in your book's DVD or in the Class Material folder that I am sharing with you in Google Drive.

Exercises C and D - Listen to the recording again and pay attention to the way in which words are linked. Then, read the conversations and record your reading. Listen and check your pronunciation. Practice until you feel it is very close to the recording :)

Finally, for exercise 7- Andrea and Claudia and Carolina y Gustavo, you can do the activity in pairs. Ale, you can do it on your own. 

The ones who are working in pairs, one of you is going to be "A" and go to ex.8.2 on page 163 and the other is going to be "B" and needs to go  to page 162.

Student A starts by asking a question to Student B. Student B has to find an appropriate answer and responds to A. After you practice, record your conversation and send it to the chat as an audio message.

Ale, you will have to take both roles. You can first record the Student's A part, making a pause after each question/statement. Next, take B's part, play the recording and find an appropriate response for each question. You can then record all the questions-answers and send it as an audio message to the chat.

Vocabulary: Memories

Before you do exercise 8A, you need to identify if the words in brakets are verbs, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, etc. It is important because you will have to put the correct word in the right place. When you do that, check that the sentence makes sense, for example:

1. This place lots of memories for us. (gets/holds)

 a) get/hold - verbs, therefore, it should be placed after the subject.

 b) This place (gets/holds) lots of memories for us. (Which is the right one?)

 c)  This place holds lots of memories for us.

When you finish, check the Answer Key in the Google Drive folder. After correcting your job, classify the expressions in two groups:

words you can use to talk about          Words you can use to talk about

       strong memories                         memories that are not so strong

Finally, do the exercises on this topic on page 155 (Check your answers in the Answer Key)

Speaking: Memories

Exercise 9A - You have to read the description of a website and answer a question:

 Would you use or visit a website like this? why? why not?

Then, for exercise B you will need to choose a stage of your life, organize your ideas about that time.

You will have to record an audio message to share in the chat, first answering the question in 9A and  then, talking about that special stage of your life. 

Writing: A Personal Story

This part of the lesson is about reading a sample story and analyzing the way in which it is written.

You will have to answer the questions in exercises 10A and B. The objective is to find evidence in the article that the writer is following the advice to write a good story.

It is a good idea to take notes about the key information that you will use to write a story of your own.

Exercise 11 on page 97 consists of two parts. The first part describes some guidelines and gives examples. Read and understand the guidelines. Add this information to your own notes.

Then you will find somes instructions to analyze the text- Find the answers. You can then check your answers with the answer key.

Remember that when you write a story, you need to use words wisely to create a vivid picture in your readers' minds. 

Finally, exercise 12 gives you the instructions for you to write a personal story.

Write your story in a Word document, double spaced and 220 to 250 words long. You will have time to proof read your work and make any necessary changes before submitting the final version, due for delivery April 13.

In the second part of today's class we will cover Lesson 8.3: Time Savers. For this, Find the PDF presentation for this lesson in the Class Materials folder and follow it. 

Do the activities in your own notebooks. You will see a video on Time Management and you will have to take notes on important ideas in the video.

For the last activity, Speaking exercise 11A-B, You will have to share an audio message in the chat answering the question: Describe as many ways  as possible to save time while working, studying, travelling or doing house work, you can think of. Then, explain how you are organizing your time to accomplish all your tasks during thhis contingency period.

Good luck! and don't forget you can contact me if you have questions or need help.

MARCH 28TH CLASS

Welcome everybody to today's class.

Our class topics are:
Unit 8 -Lesson 1 pages 92-94

1.READING COMPREHENSION
Read an article about time capsules.
2. VOCABULARY - Time Expressions
3. GRAMMAR - Future in the Past 
4. SPEAKING - Objects that reprresent people's llives
5. VOCABULARY PLUS - Proverbs

Lesson 2 page 95
1. LiSTENING COMPREHENSION PRACTICE
2. GRAMMAR- Ellipsis and Substitution.

You won't have to complete all the tasks for today, however you have to send them to me -via google drive folder: LEVEL 10 STUDENTS PRODUCTS - by Thursday.
Also, you can let me know if you have any questions or need help by sending me a message to the group's chat.
We could have an online meeting to check your progress at about 12:00, any way, we will decide if it is necessary or not before that time.


1. READING.

Exercise 1 page 92, is to be responded in the worksheet.

Watch a video that you will find in the CLASS MATERIALS folder to answer question 3 in the worksheet.

Exercise 2A - do it in the book. I will provide Answer Key so you can correct your work.

2. VOCABULARY - Time Expressions 

Do exercises in page 92 (3A and B) I will provide an Answer Key for that.

Answer exercise 3C in your worksheet.

3. GRAMMAR -Future in the Past

In the CLASS MATERIALS folder there is a PDF document on Lesson 8.1 with the explanation on Future in the past and some exercises to be responded in your worksheet.. Also check a video in the following link:

https://youtu.be/6FSnfS7-ohM

Do the exercises 4A to 5 in your book for which you will get the Answer Key.

Answer exercise 6A in your worksheet.

4. SPEAKING - PAGE 94

Read the questions in exercise 7 A and B. Send an audio message to the group's chat answering the questions.

5. VOCABULAARY PLUS- Proverbs

Watch the video in the chat to learn about proverbs.

Answer exercises 8A-B and 11 in your worksheet.

Do the rest of the exercises in your book. You will get the Answer Key to correct them.

6. LISTENING COMPREHENSION

EX. 1 PAGE 95 - Answer on worksheet.

Do the rest of the exercises 2A to  4A  on your book. You can eccess the recording from your book's DVD. I will provide Answer Key to check your answers.

7. GRAMMAR: ELLIPSIS AND SUBSTITUTION.

There is a PDF document in the CLASS MATERIALS folder. You will find the rules, an explanation and examples. You will also find some exercises that you have to respond in your worksheet.

Do the exercise 5A, page 95 on the book. Also do exercises 8.2 A and B on page 143. (Answer Key)

Future Forms

There are different future forms in English. However, you need to be able to identify the differences in meaning they convey.

Simple Present: It is used with a future meaning to talk about timetables:

The plane departs at 14:30 from Warsaw.
The next train leaves in 45 minutes.
(The meaning is "it is scheduled to depart/leave)

Will + simple verb - Simple Future
Used to talk about a decision made at the time of speaking, including offers and promises. Also used to make predictions with a good level of probability/certainty or based on what you know/believe.

I am busy today, but I will help you tomorrow.
prices will increase during the second half of the year.
I think Mark will be a good manager.

Be + going to+ simple verb
Used to make predictions based on current evidence, previous arrangements, what you feel, hear, see, think now, etc. Also describe plans made even when details such as time and place haven't been  decided yet.

I'm going to work in finance.

Present Continuous: Be + verb+ing
Used to talk about a future arrangement (details such as place and time have been decided)

I'm playing tennis with Zara at 4:30 pm.

Future Continuous: Will be + verb+ ing
Used to talk about something in progress at a definite time in the future, to ask about someone's plans, especially if we want something or want them to do something:

This time next year I'll be living in France.
Will you be working late tonight?
He will be working on Sunday.

Future Perfect: Will have + verb in past participle
Used to describe something that will be finished or completed by a certain time in the future. Use expressions with "by": by that time, by this time next week,  by the end of the month, by the end of the day, by the end of the season, etc.

By June we will have finished the project.
They said the rehearsals will have finished by the end of the week. 

Future Perfect Continuous: Will have + been + verb+ing. 
Describe something in progress for a period up to a specified time in the future.

I will have been teaching for 13 years next November.
They will have been participating in the show for 5 years at the end of the month. 

Could/May/Might + simple verb
To make a prediction which is not certain.

They could get their money by the end of the year.
He might finish his career sometime in June. 

Be  to + simple verb
Describe an official arrangement or order. 

The governor is to release new regulations next month.

Be due to + simple verb
Used to describe something that is expected to happen or arrive at a particular time.

The new books are due to be here next week.
We are due to deliver our projects by next Friday. 

PRACTICE
Do the following exercises: