Essays!

Attention, people from eight year! Here´s our CREATIVE MINDS list!

Heisenberg, Rita Levi Montalcini,Stephen Hawking, Brian Greene.

Ooops!

Almost forgot! Future exercises!

Here, here,here,here and here!

Enjoy!

More about the Future!

When you´re sure about what you´re doing, when everything is set and clear, you use the PRESENT CONTINUOUS to talk about your so sure plans. Let´s go for the examples:

• I am meeting some friends after work.
• I am not going to the party tonight.
• Is he visiting his parents next weekend?
• Is he going to visit his parents next weekend? ( be going to is also present continous!)
  
• Isn't he coming with us tonight.

See? It´s not that difficult!

Hello, hello!

Guys, there´s something on FUTURE today. Here´s the thing!

When you use WILL, three things may be happening: distant future, something you´re not sure or something you have just decided. Let´s make it clearer!

When you decide at the time of speaking, a voluntary action:

• I will send you the information when I get it.
• I will translate the email, so Mr. Smith can read it.
• Will you help me move this heavy table?
• Will you make dinner?

When you make a plan, something you´re not sure or it´s too distant:

• I will call you when I arrive.
• If I am elected President of the United States, I will make sure everyone has access to inexpensive health insurance.
• I promise I will not tell him about the surprise party.

Rita Levi Montalcini!

On Nobel Prize TV, in 1996, and more recently, on her 100th birthday. This one is in italian, but it´s very nice to see such a lucid and bright mind.

Rita LM anwers to the question about what the secret is of her extraordinary age and good shape:. She says "Death is nonexistent. What counts are the messages we leave behind us. My only secret is being completely uninterested in myself, and instead totally interested in the world and the possibilities of mankind. My message is: do believe in values, no matter if lay or religious ones".

Another great hit score to this wonderful person!

So you would like...

..to take Cambridge exams, but don´t know how good would they be for you?

I´ll show you.

How good in Brazil and in UK. Not to mention other countries.

Have you considered it?

I would...if I could...

Hello, sixth year. So now we have conditional. Big deal. The use of would has to do with many things, but in our specific case, we deal with conditions.

For example:
I would go to the beach - but I probably can´t.

Sometimes, what we are trying to do when communicating is merely being polite.

For instance:
Would you like some tea?

It´s not we´re conditioning anything, but just giving our speaker the chance to refuse our offer...or request, as in I would like some water, please.


Sometimes, it´s just the past of will.
I knew that she would be very successful in her career. - that means time passed and your guess was right!


To practice the use of would, just get the sheet I will hand in to you next week. There shall be a key for you to check your answers, so there´s no excuse for not doing it whatsoever.

What´s Past Perfect?

Oh, well, that´s easy. It´s an action in the past, correlated to another, also in the past. Let´s put a simple example:

When I arrived, Joe had left.

Action one is the second action: it´s in the past simple. The other action, previous to the one in the past simple, connected to the second, it´s in the past perfect.

Easy , right?

No?

Oh, well....then read the whole stuff down here.

Past Perfect

FORM

[had + past participle]

Examples:

• You had studied English before you moved to New York.
• Had you studied English before you moved to New York?
• You had not studied English before you moved to New York.

Complete List of Past Perfect Forms

USE 1 Completed Action Before Something in the Past

The Past Perfect expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the past. It can also show that something happened before a specific time in the past.

Examples:

• I had never seen such a beautiful beach before I went to Kauai.
• I did not have any money because I had lost my wallet.
• Tony knew Istanbul so well because he had visited the city several times.
• Had Susan ever studied Thai before she moved to Thailand?
• She only understood the movie because she had read the book.
• Kristine had never been to an opera before last night.
• We were not able to get a hotel room because we had not booked in advance.
• A: Had you ever visited the U.S. before your trip in 2006?
  B: Yes, I had been to the U.S. once before.

USE 2 Duration Before Something in the Past (Non-Continuous Verbs)

With Non-Continuous Verbs and some non-continuous uses of Mixed Verbs, we use the Past Perfect to show that something started in the past and continued up until another action in the past.

Examples:

• We had had that car for ten years before it broke down.
• By the time Alex finished his studies, he had been in London for over eight years.
• They felt bad about selling the house because they had owned it for more than forty years.

Although the above use of Past Perfect is normally limited to Non-Continuous Verbs and non-continuous uses of Mixed Verbs, the words "live," "work," "teach," and "study" are sometimes used in this way even though they are NOT Non-Continuous Verbs.

IMPORTANT Specific Times with the Past Perfect

Unlike with the Present Perfect, it is possible to use specific time words or phrases with the Past Perfect. Although this is possible, it is usually not necessary.

Example:

• She had visited her Japanese relatives once in 1993 before she moved in with them in 1996.

MOREOVER

If the Past Perfect action did occur at a specific time, the Simple Past can be used instead of the Past Perfect when "before" or "after" is used in the sentence. The words "before" and "after" actually tell you what happens first, so the Past Perfect is optional. For this reason, both sentences below are correct.

Examples:

• She had visited her Japanese relatives once in 1993 before she moved in with them in 1996.
• She visited her Japanese relatives once in 1993 before she moved in with them in 1996.

HOWEVER

If the Past Perfect is not referring to an action at a specific time, Past Perfect is not optional. Compare the examples below. Here Past Perfect is referring to a lack of experience rather than an action at a specific time. For this reason, Simple Past cannot be used.

Examples:

• She never saw a bear before she moved to Alaska. Not Correct
• She had never seen a bear before she moved to Alaska. Correct

ADVERB PLACEMENT

The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as: always, only, never, ever, still, just, etc.

Examples:

• You had previously studied English before you moved to New York.
• Had you previously studied English before you moved to New York?

Oh, and don´t forget to practice here and here , if you lads don´t mind.

Here we are!

Back into business! For seventh year B, we have been practicing on a secret project, so this is nobody´s business.

Anyway, we can always use a poem...;-)




Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

W.H. Auden