Homework

Dear students,

please, remember to read the text on page 74 (and do the activities); then, have a look at the "have something done" section (Mini-Grammar, p. 75) and, finally, do the activities of the photocopy I delivered in class today (Passive voice).

See you soon!
reme

A Book Every Week: The New Yorker

The New Yorker is one of my favourite magazines. This is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. I love the fact that they pay a lot of attention to modern fiction by the inclusion of short stories and literary reviews. Many great writers publish their brief texts here. Jonathan Franzen or Zadie Smith, for example, are two of The New Yorker contributors. I suggest you browse the web and find articles and short stories you like, and read them. Here you are a selection of texts to start with (but you'd rather find your own style, of course):

Zadie Smith, "Moonlit Landscape with Bridge"

Jonathan Franzen, "Farther Away"

David Sedaris, "Leviathan"

LISTENING: TED TALKS

Dear students,

as you might have already realized, you need to develop your listening skills as much as you can before June. And... what's the best way to achieve this? The answer is simple: listen to people speaking English (at a certain speed and with a variety of accents). Watching films is one good option (and this blog provides you with many films); listening to the radio is also a good idea (and there are lots of radio stations you can access for freee. Just click here!), and, of course, taking advantage of the proliferation of amazing Ted Talks on the Internet is highly recommendable: www.ted.com is a site full of talks by people with great ideas. You can watch the videos with subtitles. Come on, try and enjoy the experience of learning English ; -)

Weekend Movies: "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen

This week, I would likt to recommend "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen. The main characters of this film are Gil and Inez. They travel to Paris as a tag-along vacation on her parents' business trip. Gil is a successful Hollywood writer but is struggling on his first novel. He falls in love with the city and thinks they should move there after they get married, but Inez does not share his romantic notions of the city or the idea that the 1920s was the golden age. When Inez goes off dancing with her friends, Gil takes a walk at midnight and discovers what could be the ultimate source of inspiration for writing. Gil's daily walks at midnight in Paris could take him closer to the heart of the city but further from the woman he's about to marry...

Parts of the Body: IDIOMS

Dear students,
please, do this activity at home: IDIOMS RELATED TO PARTS OF THE BODY

Reading!!

Dear students,
as you know, reading is an activity by which you "magically" learn much English. Then, please, try to read as much as possible in order to improve your vocabulary (and not only that, your writing and oral skills will also improve). Something which I find useful and motivating is to read opinion articles. Browse, for example, The New York Times and find texts that you consider interesting. There are many perspectives, trendy topics, and discussions published by The New York Times. Besides, if you feel like watching a documentary about this famous newspaper, just click here: "Inside The New York Times". Enjoy!

Weekend Movies: "My Fake Fiance"

Well, this romantic comedy isn't exactly a work of art BUT it might be a bit entertaining and, of course, very useful to train your little Spanish ears. This is about a sham marriage that leads to genuine romance for a woman who lost everything and a guy who's in debt to a vicious loan shark. Her moving van stolen, Jennifer (Melissa Joan Hart) is left with nothing but three throw pillows and a cardboard box. Meanwhile, thirtysomething charmer Vince (Joey Lawrence) has racked up a rather serious gambling debt...

THE EXAM: DATES

Hello again!

The date of the June exam has been already published: the 3rd of June (Wednesday) at 16.30. That day, we will be doing the Reading, Writing and Listening exercises. We need to fix a date for the oral exam.

You can check the dates here.

Best regards!

LAY OR LIE?

Dear students,
as you've realized, the verbs TO LAY and TO LIE  can be a bit confusing, even for a person who has spent much time learning English. Therefore, we need to make an effort and try to memorize, once and forever, how these verbs need to be used.

The verbs lay and lie confuse people because:

• their meanings can be similar
• one of the verbs (lie) has two completely different meanings
• they vary between regular and irregular according to sense
• they vary between transitive and intransitive according to sense
• the present tense of lay is the past tense of the irregular lie

The following table summarizes these similarities and differences:

	lay	lie	lie
basic meaning	to put something down in a horizontal position	to recline; to be in or to take a horizontal/resting position	to say something untrue
regular?	irregular lay, laid, laid	irregular lie, lay, lain	regular lie, lied, lied
transitive? direct object?	transitive (must have direct object)	intransitive (no direct object)	intransitive (no direct object)
3rd person s	lays	lies	lies
present participle	laying	lying	lying
past tense	laid	lay	lied
past participle	laid	lain	lied

lay (transitive = you need a DIRECT OBJECT)

lay, laid, laid, laying
The main meaning of the verb lay is "to put (something) down in a horizontal position".
The important thing to remember with lay is that it is transitive, so it MUST have a direct object. You cannot just lay. You have to lay something. Look at these examples. You see they all have direct objects.

subject	verb	direct object
Something	lays	something	(somewhere).
Chickens	lay	eggs.
Our chickens	lay	their eggs	on the ground.
The nurses	laid	the wounded man	on the bed.

Here is a table of conjugation:

	present	past	present perfect
I	lay	laid	have laid
you	lay	laid	have laid
he, she, it	lays	laid	has laid
we	lay	laid	have laid
you	lay	laid	have laid
they	lay	laid	have laid

Here are some example sentences:

• The policeman told him to lay his gun on the ground.
• The police usually lay a sheet over dead bodies.
• This chicken lays three eggs every day.
• He opened the books and laid them on the desk.
• I have laid the carpet. You can walk on it now.
• The phone rang just as she was laying the new clothes on the bed.

lie (irregular, intransitive)

lie, lay, lain, lying
The irregular, intransitive lie means "to be in, or to take, a horizontal/resting position". This is what we do on a bed, for example. We lie on our bed when we sleep.
The important thing to remember with lie is that it is intransitive, so there is no direct object. Look at this examples. You see there is no direct object.

subject	verb
Something	lies	(somewhere).
My dog	lies	on this mat.
Mary	is lying	on the sofa.

You also need to remember that the past tense of this lie is "lay", which is the same as the present tense of to lay. Look at this table of conjugation:

	present	past	present perfect
I	lie	lay	have lain
you	lie	lay	have lain
he, she, it	lies	lay	has lain
we	lie	lay	have lain
you	lie	lay	have lain
they	lie	lay	have lain

Look at these example sentences:

• I feel sick. I want to lie on the bed.
• Usually I lie on the sofa and watch TV.
• My dog always lies on this mat.
• He loves this mat. Yesterday, he lay here all day.
• She has lain in bed since she got ill.
• After the aircrash, wreckage was lying all over the place.

Typical mistake

• I always lay on a bench to do this exercise. (should be lie)

Lie is something that we do to ourselves. Lay is something that we do to other people or things.

• I lie on the sofa when I'm tired.
• Mary lays the baby in its crib when it cries.

lie (regular, intransitive)

lie, lied, lied, lying
The first one above is easy. In the sense "to tell a lie, say something that is not true", lie is a regular verb and has no direct object. The past tense is always -ed. Look at these examples:

• Some people lie about their age.
• John lies about everything.
• "I'm forty-nine," he lied.
• We have all lied a few times in our lives.
• That's not true! You're lying!

	present	past	present perfect
I	lie	lied	have lied
you	lie	lied	have lied
he, she, it	lies	lied	has lied
we	lie	lied	have lied
you	lie	lied	have lied
they	lie	lied	have lied

The verbs lie and lay can have other meanings too. Only the most common are shown here. There are also several phrasal verbs made with lie and lay. They follow the same basic rules as shown on this page.

 

 

 Source: English Club

 

 

Homework

Please, do the reading exercise on pages 70-71