PET READING COMPREHENSION PRACTICE

Do these exercises and check them yourselves by clicking on 'answers'.

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

More PET Listening Practice

Do the following activities to improve your listening skills. Read the rubrics carefully. Remember you can (and you will) listen to each piece twice.

PART 1

PART 2

Click on 'answers' to check your work.

More PET Speaking Practice

Imagine you want to travel around Europe with a friend. What would be the best means of transport? The train? the plane? Be prepared to explain your choice.

Remember to use the natural English expressions you have learned this year to give your opinion, to agree and disagree, for example:

I think we should take the plane.
Yes, I agree.

(Personally,) I don't think we should go by train.
No, maybe not.

I think it would be better to hire a car.
I'm not so sure about that.

Remember you are expected to justify all your opinions.
Now click on the following link and practise with a friend. Move the mouse over the pictures to get ideas.
GETTING AROUND EUROPE

Now practise talking about a picture. Remember you can describe it and speculate about what's going on. Again, move the mouse over the pictures to get some ideas.
LONDON
FISHING TROPHY

PET LISTENING PRACTICE

Do the following activities to improve your listening skills. Read the rubrics carefully. Remember you can (and you will) listen to each piece twice.

• PART 1
• PART 2
• PART 3

Click on 'answers' to check your work.

SPEAKING PRACTICE

READ THIS INFORMATION VERY CAREFULLY, CLICK ON THE LINKS AND PRACTISE FOR THE SPEAKING PAPER ON YOUR OWN AT HOME. IT WILL BE VERY USEFUL TO IMPROVE YOUR ORAL PERFORMANCE IN CLASS.
Well, you know there are four parts in the PET speaking test:

In Part 1 the examiner will ask you questions. These could be about home, work, where you live, what you do, your family, etc. The examiner will ask you in turn.

In Part 2 you have to listen while the teacher explains a situation. Then the teacher will give you a picture (usually a drawing) and repeat the situation. You have to discuss the situation with your partner.
You have to use expressions like

• "Why don't we?"
  
• "What do you think?"
  
• "That's a good idea!"
  
• "Hmm, I don't think so, because..."
  
• "OK, let's decide to..."
  

Now you will have a look at two different situations. If you move the mouse over the pictures you will get some useful ideas.

• Learning Something New
  
• The Graduation Present
  

In Part 3, you have to talk for one minute about a picture. After you finish, your partner will talk for one minute about another picture.
Now look at the pictures. (You'll have to click on the links.) Move your mouse over them to find some ideas you can use. A good way to start is "The picture shows..." (You can even practise speaking about the photo for one minute because there's a time piece available next to the picture).

• River scene
• New baby
• At the airport
  

In Part 4, you have to talk with your partner about a topic. The topic will be related to the photos you saw in Part 3. For example, if the two photos showed people waiting, you will have to talk together about how you feel about waiting, what you do when you have to wait, if you keep people waiting or not, etc.

WRITING PRACTICE

You will have to hand in this letter after the holidays. You don't need to send it to me by mail.

Before writing the letter, read the useful advice provided in the site as regards useful structures and vocabulary. That will help you write a much better piece.
Remember you have to write about a hundred words.

Well, now imagine you have flu (hope you'll just have to pretend). Do this task.

GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY PRACTICE

Now you'll have to fill in the blanks choosing the right word at the bottom.

The first text is about mosquitoes. Learn some interesting facts about these annoying insects.

The second text is about the weather.

Do both exercises and email the answers to me. This is not optional. It's a homework assignment.

PET READING TEST - Practice for parts 1 and 2

Do these reading comprehension exercises and check your answers.
You don't have to send me the answers. It's your responsibility to do the exercises.

Is there anybody out there?

I haven't had much feedback yet. I hope you can take advantage of this time without classes and catch up with some work you didn't have time to do before.

How can you keep in contact with English during this time?

Well, there are many things you can do:
- Do all the exercises in the workbook which you haven't done yet (of course of the units we have already covered) and correct them with the key.

- Visit the book's website.
http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/naturalenglish/int/
There are lots of interactive exercises and games for each unit. You can practise grammar, vocabulary, the natural English expressions, etc.

- You can redo the exercises we have already done.

- And last but not least, you can do the activities I'm publishing in this blog and leave comments as well.

Hope you can profit from this all.

Adjectives ending in ed and ing

Do you remember the difference between ing and ed adjectives? Between boring and bored? or interested and interesting?
I have just finished correcting some compositions and I see that some of you need further practice with these adjectives.
First look at the exercise in the workbook on page 24 (for a quick revision) and then do these exercises. Read the rubrics carefully so that you know what to do.

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Grammar practice

Do these sentence transformations and send them to me by mail.

1- Sentences with Present Perfect and Past Simple.
http://www.members.tripod.com/normainnes/PET%20mats/practice_with_the_present_perfec.htm

2- Revision of structures
http://www.members.tripod.com/normainnes/PET%20mats/sentence%20tranforms2.htm

Again, this is not optional. You must all 'hand in' this homework via mail.

Reading comprehension

1- Read this story about how useful a mobile phone can be. Choose the correct answers and send them to me by mail. (A window will appear asking you to write your user name and password, just click on cancel a couple of times and you will be able to read the text without problems.)

http://www.members.tripod.com/normainnes/PET%20mats/Mobile_drama.htm#Mobile%20drama

2- Now read this text and answer the multiple choice questions. (again send them to me together with the answers to the previous ex)
http://www.members.tripod.com/normainnes/PET%20mats/Personal%20space.htm

This is not optional, everybody must send in this homework.

FIRST CONTACT ONLINE

Hi everybody,
Hope you are all fine and have not gone done with flu or caught any other nasty bugs which seem to be running wild around us.

Now let's get down to business. The first thing I'd like you to do is some homework which you will have to send to me as an attachment in a word doc to my mail.
- Not all of you handed in the compositions I had assigned before classes were suspended. So if you are one of those, please send them to me. (They are the letter to a friend recommending places to visit in Argentina and the letter telling a friend about the free English weekend you have just attended)
- Write some generalizations about people in our country. Write about sport, meal times, clothes, entertainment, etc. (See model in WB, page 31)
- Book page 63. Uses of get. Do exercises 1 and 2 and send them to me.
- Workbook pages 28, 29, 30 and 31 and 32 (ex 9) - Do all the exercises and correct them with the key. The exercise verb/adverb collocations is vey important (page 30).
You might need to work with an English-English dictionary . There's an online dictionary on your right. Just type a word and click on search.

Please, keep visiting the blog because I will be publishing different kinds of assignments (some of them will count as homework).