Fashion podcast & video

Fashion podcast
Vocab:

• bell-bottoms
• flares
• jeggings
• jean jacket
• the little black dress
• trendy
• a trench coat
• out-dated
• shoulder pads
• plaid
• vintage/retro

Video 1
Video 2

Discourse markers

• discourse markers 1

• discourse markers 2

 

Future forms and modals

• expressing future plans and arrangements

• speculation and deduction

• permission, obligation, and necessity

 

Try - Remember - Forget

Some videos to see the difference in meaning:
Try + ing or  infinitive

REMEMBER & FORGET

Tips for dealing with speaking anxiety

Robots

Follow the links to watch the videos:

• Robot 1
• Robot 2
• Robot 3
• Robot Maid

Concession clauses

Although-in spite of
Concession and contrast
Concession, contrast and reason pdf

English E-books

Here's 
a great -and very useful- post for those of you who like reading in English

PASSIVE OF REPORTING VERBS

 Here are some exercises, as requested:
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3

How to Write a Report

Reason for writing (Introduction)

• The aim/objective/purpose of this report is to ...

• This report aims to... 

• It is based on a survey conducted/carried out among...                            

• Nouns: information, ideas, suggestions, situations, conditions, comments,
  measures, steps, solutions, causes, consequences, issues, ...
• Verbs: recommend, consider, suggest, examine, evaluate, outline, analyse, present, give information on, to cause, to bring about...

Body

• Headings from the task

• It should be considered/taken into account... , it is worth considering...

• According to (the majority of respondents, 50% of ...)

• In spite of /Despite the fact (that) + sentence
• In spite of /Despite +noun or ...ing
• Predicting the future: The outlook for ... is bright/optimistic/depressing.  The future looks bleak/remains uncertain/is promising

• This seems unlikely in the near future
•  It is (therefore) believed / obvious that…would be ideal for…

• The research shows/proves...  

 

Making/giving recommendations

• We suggest/propose that + sentence
  We suggest/propose + ing ...

•  In light of the results of the survey we believe the following measures should be adopted…

•  In the short/long term, we suggest you should consider…
•  My recommendations are as follows: …
•  In my view, in future, we should…
•  To improve the situation, we recommend…
•  It is recommended that…  I would strongly recommend that ... should + bare infinitive

• The best solution is/would be to...

• This will have an impact on ...

Conclusion

• In conclusion...To sum up,…To conclude,…
• From the research/the statistics we conclude that...

Style

• Do not use contractions.
• Use passive forms whenever possible.
• Use relative clauses to join ideas: The period during which he lived was full of uncertainty.
• Use these formal words:  like such as   /   kids children   

           a lot (of) many / a large number of  + countable noun
            a lot (of) much / a great amount of / a great deal of + uncountable
             a lot (intensity) very much / significantly / dramatically 

• Avoid using the word things / something,  etc. Use a more specific word (problems, situation, solutions, subjects, and so on).
  

Adapted from  http://cae-tips.blogspot.com.es

Lazy

snuggie  - See picture here
dougie- See a video here