C1A - weekly summary and inter-semester tasks

Hello there, here’s the final weekly update of the first semester. Last week we did a past exam paper (grammar section) in class and looked through the answers together. We also did some general conversation and spoke about the exams.

Please remember that between semester one and semester two it’s essential that you continue to practise and use your English. That means revising what we’ve been doing so far, plus reading, listening, speaking, writing, and doing the exercises I gave last week. Don’t stop practising or it will be harder to start again next semester – remember, a language is something that needs cultivating with enthusiasm, care and interest – like a sport, a musical instrument or a plant! Here are the main exercises which are to be done between the two semesters:

- Here’s a practice past exam paper for you to try..

2nd years - You can download them – click here for the grammar section and click here for the comprehension/composition. 1st years - Here for the grammar and here for the comprehension/composition.

- Grammar Book units: 6, 7, 12, 20 and 32 (NB – first year students, please check the first year grammar programme that I posted up the other week and make certain that you are familiar with the grammar points, perhaps revising points which you find more difficult).

- Revision of areas covered so far in my lessons or in Dott.ssa Carducci’s lessons at the start of the first semester.

- Study those phrasal verbs some more (I’ll try to find some links to some on-line exercises over the next week or two, and if I find something interesting I’ll post it here.

- Continue reading more of the short stories (you decide which ones at this point, but remember that you continue reading these stories throughout the year without me reminding you).

- Choose a newspaper article or two to summarise (ones you're interested in, obviously - and tell me why you find the topic interesting).

- Write about at least 3 (ideally) of these eight themes (I’ve given you general topics rather than exam-style titles in order to give you a little more liberty):

- Sports

- A memory

- An argument you feel strongly about

- New technologies

- Society and television

- Multi-cultural society

- Transport

- Life in 2030

Next week I will be posting up some English recipes for you to try making over the holidays! So do check back and let me know how they go if you try them!