Prepositions Meanings in some Phrasals

Topic Vocabulary

These are some of the words you should use if you have to speak / write about these topics.

Listening CHALLENGE

Try these two short Lucy's listening challenges!

C2 Cleft Sentences

We use cleft sentences, especially in speaking, to connect what is already understood to what is new to the listener. 

In a cleft sentence, a single message is divided (cleft) into two clauses. This allows us to focus on the new information.

Conjunctions (2)

Read the sentences and pay attention to the meaning, use and punctuation of conjunctions. They always connect words, phrases or clauses.

British Culture: Clever comebacks for "jokes" By Lucy

Read the pdf. document here and do the activities.

C1 Orals Final Exam

Oral Expression & Oral Mediation. 

Days & Times:

    Mon. 20th May

16.30 - 17.15: Pablo & Elena C.

17.15 - 18.00: Ayrton & Alvaro

18.15 - 19.00: María R. & Javi

19.00 - 19.45: Sergio & Alba

19.45 - 20.00: Sara

   Thur. 23th May

16.30 - 17.15: Aida & Antonio

17.15 - 18.00: Vero & Toñi

18.15 - 19.00: Boni & Miguel

19.00 - 19.45: Elena B. & Patricia

    Mon. 27th May

16.30 - 17.15: Sofía & Lucía

17.15 - 18.00: María J. & Eva

18.15 - 19.00: Mario & Laura

19.00 - 19.45: María M. & Ginesa

19.45 - 20.00: Paco

C2 Orals Final exam

Oral Expression & Oral Mediation. 

Days & Times:

   Fri. 24th May

  9.30 - 10.15: Kate & Miguel

10.15 - 11.00: María & Pedro

11.15 - 12.00: Laura & Paula

12.00 - 12.45: Carmen & Jessica

    Mon. 3rd June

  9.30 - 10.15: Esther &

10.15 - 11.00: Mabel & Gaby

Has relying on tech made us more stupid?

Read the article by OneStopEnglish /The Guardian and do the activities. 

Key.

EL PAÍS News in English

From immigration to inflation

Dear readers,

This week we reported on what seems to be a concerted effort by several European nations to recognize Palestinian statehood ahead of the EU elections. We also analyzed the results of a survey of EU citizens reflecting their biggest concerns, from immigration to inflation.

‌In the Americas, we examined a controversial development project in a protected mangrove in Ecuador; the company behind the plan is owned by the president's wife. We also unveiled new information about the probe into the looting of Venezuela's state-owned oil company.

But our top story this week was a science article about how our cells, and not our DNA, are the masters of human destiny. The biologist Alfonso Martínez Arias defends that genes do not define the uniqueness of a person.

We hope you enjoy this selection of stories
 

• You can also read:
• Porn for women: Can it really be feminist or ethical?
• Pierre Boulle: The spy who invented ‘Planet of the Apes,’ a world with intelligent gorillas and humans with lazy brains
• Digital body language: How non-verbal communication works on social media
• Vaping now more common than smoking among young people – and the risks go beyond lung and brain damage
• The cost of being a Taylor Swift fan

Oral Practice (by Splendid Speaking)

This entry is almost 13 years old, but still useful:

Try the following Splendid Speaking Activities to rehearse both the speech and the interaction parts of the oral exam:
Technology, Music, Language Learning, Jobs, Environmental Concerns, Cultural Attractions, Jobs, Eating Habits, Travel, Money, People, Home Sweet Home, Work, Life, Personality, Sport and Fitness, Cinema & TV, National Festivals.
Remember there are many other topics, all of which can be checked here ... and don't forget this.

Read carefully before the exam

Assessment tables: (the tables for teachers to assess students' performance in each part of the exam)

Writing: C1    C2

Speaking: C1    C2

Mediation: C1 & C2

Read carefully for written and oral exams.

                

                Order and time of parts (approx.):

C1: Writing: 16.30 - 18.00 (5 min.)

       Written Mediation 18.00 - 18.25 (15 min.)

       Listening 18.45 - 19.10 (5 min.)

       Reading 19.15 - 20.45 

C2: Writing: 16.30 - 18.20 (5 min.)

       Written Mediation 18.25 - 18.40 (15 min.)

       Listening 19.00 - 19.45 (5 min.)

       Reading 19.50 - 21.20

Interactive Speaking Practice

Here are some different ways in which people communicate and a question for you to discuss. First you have some time to look at the task. (1 min.) 

For the following 5 minutes, talk to each other about the advantages and disadvantages of communicating in these different ways and then decide which two ways of communicating are the least effective. [Adapted from Cambridge Assessment]

C1 Writing Exam Practice

The following documents are taken from Cambridge C1 Advanced Teaching Tips for Writing and, though not exactly the same as EOI's exams, you may learn how to do the tasks and check the way they are corrected:

Tasks

Sample Answers & Comments

Common Verb Collocations

Write down the ones you didn't know and make at least a sentence with each of them.

Conjunctions (1)

Read the sentences and pay attention to the meaning, use and punctuation of conjunctions. They always connect words, phrases or clauses.

Adverbs

 Check adverbs and their position in the sentence!

Writing Tips

 

Key to Mediation activity

Compare your (written) mediation version to this suggested one.

C1 & C2 Oral Exam Practice & Times

The following cards can be used to practise the oral exam:

C1: Oral Production

       Oral Coproduction (more)

C2: Oral Production

      Oral Coproduction

Times for preparation and exposition of oral tasks 

Nouns + Prepositions

Mediation activity

Read this text and do either a written (as in the document rubric) or oral mediation (in 3 mins). Thanks Asun!

Suggested KEY tomorrow

Trinomials

Binomials 2

 

EL PAÍS News in English

Biden faces his Vietnam over Gaza protests

Dear readers,

Observers have described the protests against the Gaza war sweeping across U.S. university campuses as President Joe Biden’s Vietnam, in reference to the 1968 demonstrations that coincided with the Democratic convention in Chicago. Coincidentally, Biden will be anointed as the party’s official candidate for the November presidential election in the same city later this year, a prospect that frightens many Democrats who remember how disastrously the convention five and half decades ago played out amid street protests. The president’s political future is increasingly seen as being inextricably linked to securing a ceasefire, and the more distant prospect of a lasting peace, in Gaza ahead of a presidential ballot that is expected to be decided by extremely fine margins and where the Democrats do not enjoy nearly as much support among younger voters as they did in 2020.

In the international sphere, EL PAÍS analyzed another of Washington’s open fronts in the global geopolitical tussle, Africa, where U.S. influence in the fight against jihadist terrorism in the Sahel is increasingly on the wane with Russia waiting in the wings to exert its influence in countries such as Niger and Chad, which have both called for the withdrawal of American forces stationed on their soil. (...).

‌We also spoke to Jean-Michel Claverie, professor emeritus of genomics at Aix-Marseille University in France, who has spent his long career studying potential threats to humanity lurking in the regions of the planet covered in permafrost. Claverie has recently found five new families of viruses, known as “zombie viruses,” in samples up to 48,500 years old taken from seven different places in Siberia. (...).

We hope you enjoy this selection of articles from El País USA Edition.

You can also read:

• Paul Auster, a life in in images. I recommend you read 4 3 2 1 and the New York Trilogy: superb!
• Life is hell for the poor in Cartagena, where sexual exploitation starts in childhood.
• The cost of being a Taylor Swift fan
• Rubén Baler, neuroscientist: ‘We are guinea pigs. Our attention has become a profitable commodity’
• Gender shapes health: Women live longer but with poorer quality of life
• Carmen Estrada, neuroscientist: ‘Science and God cannot coexist’
• From Mariana Enriquez’s chaos to the perfect workspace: What the disorder of our work desk says about us

C1 / C2 Revise Passive Reporting Structures

Do some of the exercises on this blog. You needn't do all of them, just a couple of each to revise the different structures.

Prepositions TEST

 Advanced Prepositions TEST

Revise (if necessary)

How to ace your C1 / C2 writing tasks in the final exam

1. Read the rubrics very carefully and follow them strictly (topic, type of writing, formal or informal register, number of words, number of paragraphs).
2. Devote at least 10 min. to plan your writing: ideas to develop (1 idea 1 paragraph), topic sentences, (advanced) connectors, style.
3. Choose specific vocabulary & phrases and grammar to use (type III conditional, cleft sentence, inversion, tense correlation, etc.).
4. Do the writing.
5. Proofread your writing: reread rubric, spelling, intelligibility, repeated words or ideas.
6. Hand in.

Questions for Teenagers (you might answer as well even if you're not one of them).

Oral Exam INFO