"SelfStudy" I

Listening

Movies

1. Guess who
2. How to lose a guy in 10 days
3. Sweet November
4. Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
5. Mamma mia
6. Married Life
7. Transformers

Reading

Some of Isle of Man
Angels and demons, mystery novel by Dan Brown.
Paper: The colombian presidential elections of 1998

Speaking
With my roommate every day, she is Brasilian.
Conversation Class.

Writing
Summaries

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Some News

September 23, 2008 (METRO)
Japanese could save Lehman`s city staff
After Lehman brothers bankruptcy a lot of their professional employees lost their jobs, in this way one of the bigger Japanese companies want to get these people, but the problem is their salary because they cannot pay the same like Lehman.

September 25, 2008 (City AM)
Myspace challenges Apple
The change is real in digital music because the free songs of artists will be made available on Myspace, which had a restriction in the number of songs, but now the limit disappears and Myspace have artists` entire catalogues available for streaming.

September 29, 2008 (City AM)
City Banker Suicide
Stephenson success banker, dedicated father of Lucas and devoted husband of Karina. The city could not understand his dramatic death in front of a computer train. The people said he was a good worker, own of important properties in London like big house in Chelsea. But they do not the reason of his suicide.

October 2, 2008 (METRO)
... and the bride wore handcuffs
This article talk about a Portuguese woman who arrested in her wedding, because she is involved in immigration scams. Now she is in front of deportation as a suspected illegal immigration. The police said that this is one of multiple cases but he assures they are working hard to combat illegal immigration.


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Some Grammar


Past Continuous
Form
Was/were + ____ing
Uses:
1. To talk about background actions
· The sun was shining and the birds were singing.
· I was jumping with my sister
2. To talk about a longer background action in the past when a shorter action interrupts it or happens during it.
· We were talking about you when you rang
· He was listening when Pedro arrived
3. To talk about repeated actions in the past that takes place over a temporary period of time.
· People were coming in all day to buy this item
· Maria was checking all week for her tickets
4. To emphasise the duration or community of a past action
· For the whole of last month we were trying to solve this same problem
· Last week I was keeping our lives.
5. Tip: be, like, know, believe, understand was rarely used verbs in past continuous.

Past Perfect

Form
Had + Past Participle
Use:
Use the past perfect to emphasise that one action happened before another in the past. The past perfect is often used with the conjunctions when, before, after and by.
· The film had already started when we arrived at the cinema.
· The class had begun when the teacher left the classroom.
If the sequence of the events is clear, we can also use the past simple. (I called my friend after I finished work)


Modals

Can/Can´t
To talk about present ability and possibility.
We can ask him if he´d like to join us
I can´t shi. I don´t know how do

Could
Use could to say something is possible or likely in the future.
Your work on this could be useful later on.
That table could be good for my office

Should/ Shouldn’t
To say if something is advisable or not
I think we should ask customers what they want
We probably shouldn´t wait any longer to start work on this

Have to/ Must Which one is stronger?

must is a bit stonger, but other people might disagree! The main difference is must comes from yourslef and have to from what someone else says

We use both, to talk about something that is necessary and important, but there are some differences in meaning.
· Use have to say something is essential or that it is a general rule
When you develop a new design you have to try it out a number of times
It has to be strong enough to carry eight people.
· Use Must to say something is necessary or important in your opinion personal-
I feel that we must make the design more modern
It must be on my desk by the end of the day

Don’t have to / Mustn´t
Use don’t have to say something is not necessary
It doesn’t have to made of metal, plastic is fine
They don’t have to be here. We can decide ourselves

Use mustn´t to it is necessary or important not to do something.
We mustn´t forget to tell them about the party
They mustn´t find out about our plans. They wouldn´t like them

MODALS FOR PRESENT DEDUCTION
Use modal verbs to make guesses (deductions) about the present, based on evidence. The different model verbs express different levels of certainty.

Must
Use must to say that you are certain something is true.
· The door is open so Michael must be home
· Jane was ill but she´s running around so she must be a lot better

Can`t
Use can´t to say you are certain is not true
· This painting can´t be by Rembrandt. It´s too much modern
· The police say he attacked someone at 7pm, but it can´t be true because he was with me at that time.

Could/Might
To say something is possible.
· It could be true that it was all his own work. It´s definitely possible.
· The package might be from David. Open it and find out.

We can also use modal verbs with a continuous form.
· He must be feeling better
· They might be coming later


Present Perfect

Form
Has/have + Past Participle

It looks back from now to a time before.

Uses
· A stated that started in the pasta and is still continuing. E.g. I´ve lived here all m y live.
· A completed action in the past which has some relevance to the present. (present result) E.g. There has been a severe storm and the airport is now closed.
· Finished actions in a period of time that is still continuing. E.g. I´ve been there once already today.
· Actions in the past which may happen again. E.g. Deborah Tannen has written several books on communication (She could write more books)

Important: Use the past simple not the present perfect for when talking about a definite time in the past.