Monday, January 18, 2016

BOOKS and CINEMA

My mother used to tell her five children that if a person has a book, they have a friend. That maxim came to mind when I read this thoughtful (anonymous) essay by a NI1 student.


BOOKS and CINEMA
I’ve always loved reading and watching films. I began to read when I was a child… I used to visit my aunts and in their house, exactly in the living-room there was a cupboard where they had a magazine collection called Reader’s Digest. Do you know it? I often borrowed them.

I remember that they had a lot of romantic novels and I quickly read it but there was one special issue. I cried so much that my mother was worried and she told me: “I don’t understand how you cry but you continue reading!!!”. It’s very easy: I lived in the book! I was into the story or the story was in me. Who knows!

It was a fabulous experience because I could spend some time and not know what was happening around me. That was how I began to love books. Now, I spend some time in the bookshop touching, choosing and also smelling books.

On the other hand, I also love watching films. I like 50s American films with stars such as Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Montgomery Cliff, Paul Newman, Audrey and Katherine Hepburn, among others. Now I often go to Monopol Cinema because it offers very interesting films, original version European films with subtitles and I enjoy watching Juliette Binoche, Christiane Thomas, Gabriel Byre and Tim Robbins.

While I’m writing these words I can see that I like classic and modern styles. I think that finally it’s important, it’s specially important reading, watching and listening to everything that makes us feel, everything that offers us opportunities, possibilities to live better lives.



Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Animal Voices

Animal voices

pig = oink, grunt 

cow = moo

donkey = bray

horse = neigh

dog = bark, growl 

cat = meow, purr

chicken = cheep 

duck = quack 

goat = bleat 

sheep = baa 

turkey = gobble

Strong adjectives (from Unit 2)

Strong adjectives (from Unit 2)
sad = miserable   /  pretty = gorgeous

big = enormous   / hungry = starving

cold = freezing   / hot = boiling

dirty = filthy   / funny = hilarious

sure = positive   / surprised = amazed

bad = awful    /  tired = exhausted

angry = furious   / afraid = terrified, petrified

small = tiny

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

NI1 Speaking Test January 2016


MONOLOGUES
 

1) How do you spend your weekends?
 
 
2) What is your idea of a perfect holiday?
 
 
3) Do you come from a big family? Describe it.
 
 
4) What kind of food don´t you like?
 
 
5) Have you ever been to an English-speaking country?
 
 
6) What did you want to be when you were a child?
 
 
7) What do you use the Internet for?
 
 
8) What kind of things annoy you in a restaurant?
 
 
9) Can you remember the first time you traveled by plane?
 
 
 
10) What music do you like listening to in the car?
 
 
 
 
DIALOGUES
 
 
 
1) The restaurant (customer and waiter/waitress)
 
  
 
2) Fruit and vegetable market (customer andvendor)
 
 
3) Old friends meet on the street (catching up)
 
 
4) Interview with pop star (star and journalist)
 
 
5) The cold and flu ( doctor and  patient)

Monday, January 11, 2016

NI1 CD2 answers

Answers to CD 2 for NI1 students. Good luck and happy new year!



NI1
CD2: KEY                                                                                                                      

1)      1B, 2C, 3A, 4C, 5B, 6A, 7A, 8B
2)      A) scenes  b) crocodile  c) different  d) family
   e) Qualifications  f) Short courses   g) fall  h)professional diver                                                                                                  
3)   Speaker 1: a   Speaker 2: b  Speaker 3: b  Speaker 4: c
4)    1A, 2B, 3C, 4A
5)    1A, 2A, 3C, 4A, 5B, 6C, 7C, 8B
6)    a) newspapers  b) school play  c) vet  d) moved to London  e) drama school  f) flat
        g) producers  h) script
7)    Speaker 1: chillies, curry, spicy  Speaker 2: potatoes, chips, fried   Speaker 3: rice,           
        vegetables, chop sticks.
8)    Speaker 1: D  Speaker 2: C  Speaker 3: A  Speaker 4: B                                                                                                                                          
9)    a) True  b) True  c) False  d) True  e) False  f) False  g) True
10)  a)  Chris Turner  042317364  sell
        b)  Helen Foot  078322331  buy
        c)  Karen Singleton  6723909099  buy
        d)  Nicholas Dart  5472104783  sell
        e)  Jenny Page  1324659780  sell

       Message a: Excellent / Yes
       Message b:  She can’t afford it
       Message c:  How old it is / Her dad
       Message d: Mobile / He’s grown out of it / Two and a half years / Free delivery
       Message e: Yesterday/ Yesterday /£40
                                                                                                                 


11)   1B, 2C,  3B, 4B, 5B, 6B, 7C
12)   Speaker 1: mobile  Speaker 2: laptop  Speaker 3: video camera  Speaker 4: MP3 player
         Speaker 5: digital camera
13)   a) True  b) False  c) False  d) False  e) True  f) True  g)  False  h)  True
14)    1C, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5A, 6B, 7A
15)    a) False  b) False  c) True  d)  False  e)  True
16)    Speaker 1: C  Speaker 2: A, Speaker 3: D, Speaker 4: B
17)    1A, 2B, 3C, 4B, 5D
18)    Speaker 1: B  Speaker 2: D, Speaker 3: E,  Speaker 4: C, Speaker 5: A