English today DVD6 Easy English for you

English today DVD6 Easy English for you

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Hello and welcome back to ‘English today’ and this is DVD 6 and the second DVD of your elementary level. And in this DVD you will see another three episodes of our story ‘That’s life!’ followed by our special TV programmes. In the first a music expert talks about John Lennon, followed by a business debate about Bill Gates. Then, in the grammar section, we will study the regular and irregular verbs of the past tense, adjectives and the use of ‘should’ for giving advices. Ok? So enjoy your studying and have fun.

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-Hi, Jack…

-…Yes, that’s exactly what I told him. I sent him an Email asking for more information… No, i didn’t… I’m sorry, I didn’t have enough  time today… Okay, okay, I’ll call him in ten minutes! Bye.

-Hi, Jack! So… Did you have a good day?

-No, i didn’t. It was a horrible day, Anne. I had a lot of work to do. First I met some clients in the city. We met at nine o’clock and finished at two. After that I checked the monthly loss and profit accounts twice and then I wrote some letters… I’m so tired…

-Well, now relax! Have a glass of wine… You’re lucky… I’m cooking lasagna, your favourite dish…

-No, thanks Anne. I ate lasagna at lunch.

-Oh… But it’s not a problem… I’ll prepare something else… And after dinner we can watch Wimbeldon on TV. There is a men’s singles match. It should be exciting.

-I’m sorry Anne, I… I can’t… I have some work to finish. And then I’m going to my karate gym. That’show I relax!

-Oh, hey, Jack, just a moment! Didn’t you notice anything?

-Did you clean the kitchen?

-No, I didn’t!

-Ah… did you receive your ‘marvellous set of Chinese plates’?

-No, Jack! Nothing about the house! It’s about me.

-Oh, I see! You bought a new pair of shoes, didn’t you? They’re very nice!  Well, I have to go now, it’s late.

-It doesn’t matter! Go! Bye! Such a waste of time…

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Hello and welcome to ‘English 2day’ your live programme where you can learn the English language. Now did you see the last episode of ‘That’s Life!’? Well I think Jack needs a pair of these, what do you think? I mean honestly… men… Let’s change the subject and talk about something else, shall we? Let’s talk about regular and irregular verbs. Let’s take an example: the verb ‘play’. Well in the past it’s very easy because regular verbs just take ED at the end. So ‘play’ plus ED becomes ‘played’. Another example: ‘start’ plus ED becomes ‘started’. Let’s look at those on the screen now, because there are certain things that we need to know about the pronunciation and the spelling, in particular, of regular verbs in the past. So, as we said, the simple verbs are: ‘play’, ‘visit’… you just add ED so it’s ‘played’ and ‘visited’.

What happens if a verb ends with E? Well it’s simple, we just add D, so ‘live’ becomes ‘lived’ jusd D, ‘dance’ becomes ‘danced’, you just add the D. There’s no need to add another E, Ok?

Then what happens if the verb ends in a Y? For example ‘hurry’. Well that’s simple, you take off the Y and you replace it with I, I-E-D, ‘hurry’ becomes ‘hurried’. Now this is for verbs which end with a Y preceded by a consonant, so another example is ‘marry’. It ends with R-Y and becomes ‘married’, I-E-D, Ok?

Then the next group, ‘stop’ T-O-P is the end of this verb, so it’s consonant, vowel, consonant. With these verbs what we do is, we double the consonant so ‘stop’ becomes ‘stopped’ with double P, but the pronunciation doesn’t change, ok?

Another example is ‘prefer’, ‘prefer’ becomes ‘preferred’, double R, ok? Again pronunciation doesn’t change. So these are the things you need to remember about the Simple Past, regular verbs, mainly it’s a problem of spelling. Ok? Otherwise it’s easy.

The problems begin with the irregular verbs, because you have to learn them by heart, which means by memory. You have to learn them individually. Now, I am going to read some to you, some of the most important ones, some of them you have already heard in the story so listen carefully to the pronunciation:

BYE — BOUGHT. You notice that O-U-G-H-T is pronounced O-T. ‘BYE — BOUGHT’.

COME — CAME

DO — DID

DRINK — DRANK

EAT -ATE

FIND — FOUND

GET — GOT

GIVE — GAVE

HAVE — HAD

MAKE — MADE

MEET — MET

READ — READ. Notice that now ‘read’ and ‘read’ are written exactly the same but the pronunciation changes in the Past Tense. Read — READ.

SAY — SAID

SEND -SENT

SPEAK -SPOKE

TELL — TOLD

THINK — THOUGHT. Watch that again O-U-G-H-T, O-T.

WRITE — WROTE

Ok, so, some of those are the most important irregular tense verbs that you will hear, alright?

Now let’s go and join our friends again in ‘That’s life!’. And the girlls are looking at an album of photographs. Listen to them carefully and see how many Past Tense verbs you can pick out. Ok? And then we’ll continue with our studying of it after, they’re very important, these verbs… see you later, bye!

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-Hey Anne… Thaanks a lot for the tip on the bookshop… Oh my God! Anne! What’s happening here? Make-up… Let me see… New hair-style, new dress… You look great!

-At last somebody noticed my change! It’s impossible not to notice it!

-Thanks!… Well, what were you talking about?

-Oh, I wanted to thank you for the tip on the  bookshop! It’s a great shop.

-Great. I’m glad you liked it. I love sitting and drinking a cup of coffee and looking at the books.

-Yes, that’s exactly what I did: I sat down, ordered a cup of coffee and read. And I found all the books I wanted!

-What books did you buy?

-I bought a biography about Virginia Woolf and a book about archaeology. And you… What are you doing?

-I’m trying not to think about all my problems… So, I’m looking at some pictures.

-Can I see them?

-Sure!

-They’re pictures of us. Oh, look! look at this one! We were in Edinburgh! We went for a trip, do you remember?

-Yes, I do! How funny Alice was with that Scottish hat! Did we go by car?

-Oh, no, we didn’t. We went by train. And at the very last moment Peter didn’t come because of the audition.

-Yes! As usual… And who is this? I don’t know him!

-Oh, that’s Frank, a friend of mine. I met him on holiday in Norway. We had a good time together.

-…And?

-Afterwards he  went his way and I went my way.

-Yeah, that’s life! Did you have an affair with him?

-No, no, I didn’t… Nothing like that. We were only good friends!

-Do you keep in touch?

-No, we don’t.  He wrote me a letter five years ago. He sent me an invitation to his wedding.

-Did you go?

-No, I didn’t. Well… Unfortunately, I had a lot of work and couldn’t get away.

-Hey, but this is Jack! How smart he looks in this picture!

-Yes, he does!

-Do you mind, Anne, if I keep this picture with me?

-I… I do mind! No way, I’m sorry, Sharon! But no!

-Why not?! What do you care about it?!

-And you? What do you care about it?!

-Hey girls, what’s happening here?!

-Nothing, at all!

-Why?!

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Hello again and welcome back. That’s quite a triangle, isn’t it? In the story… Now let’s continue with the Past Tense and let’s look at questions and negative forms. Fortunately they are very regular because we just use the auxiliary ‘did’. Remember in the Present Tense we used ‘do’ and ‘does’? Well, in the Oast Tense we only need ‘did’ and in the negative ‘didn’t’.

So things are easier, ok? Now, I want to do a little exercise with you to practise questions. I will say a sentence in the positive form and I want you to formulate a question. Let me give you an example. I say: ‘I went out last night.’ Went, the Simple Past of …’go’ exactly. So the question is: ‘Where did you go?’ Alright?    Now I want you to practise to formulate the questions. Next example: ‘I saw a good film.’ ‘I saw a good film’. ‘What film?…’ alright ‘did you see?’ Very good, see, saw, very good.

‘After we went to a pizza place.’ ‘Where…’ Exactly! ‘Where did we go?’ The infinitive ‘went, go’. Okay. ‘Where did we go?’ Next one. ‘I had a four seasons pizza’, ‘I had a four seasons pizza’. Question? What type of pizza … did… you… have? Exactly! ‘Have’ is the infinitive of the Past Tense ‘had’, great! Next one. ‘We drank some beer.’ ‘What…’ good, ‘did you drink?’, ‘What did you drink?’ Great, next one. ‘We talked about the film.’ ‘We talked’, regular, ‘about the film.’ ‘What… what did you talk about?’ So it’s a regular verb, we take off the ED, the infinitive ‘talk’. ‘What did we talk about?’ Great! Next one: ‘We left the restaurant at eleven thirty.’ ‘We left the restaurant.’ ‘What time… did you leave?’ Very good, ‘leave’ is the infinitive of ‘left’, ‘What time did you leave the restaurant?’ And the last one, be careful here. ‘It was very good.’ ‘It was very good.’ What? Did it be? No… remember the verb ‘to be’ is always an exception. And we don’t use an auxiliary, we don’t use ‘did’, we don’t use ‘do’, we don’t use ‘does’. So, what’s the question? ‘It was very good.’ ‘What was it like?’ Alright? So remember with the verb ‘to be’ don’t use the auxiliary ‘did’, so let’s go to the screen nowand look at that written, to help you memorize it. Okay? So, we said that we use ‘did’ and ‘didn’t’  in the question and negative forms. Let’s look at the question, you have the question word ‘when’, the auxiliary ‘did’, the subject ‘you’ and then the infinitive form, alright? ‘When did you arrive?’ ‘Who did she (or he) see?’ ‘How dod it happen?’, ‘Why did we sell it?’ Okay? Always ‘did’, with ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he/she/it’, ‘we’, ‘you’, ‘they’. And ‘Where did they go last week?’. Alright? So it’s not difficult.

Now the negative, well, we take ‘did not’ and we abbreviate it to ‘didn’t, and we say:

-I didn’t see them last month.

-You didn’t hear me.

-He or she didn’t visit him last week.

-It didn’t rain last month.

-We didn’t buy the house.

-They didn’t go to the party yesterday.

So again ‘didn’t’ with all the forms: I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they. Alright? So now you know the positive form, the question form and the negative form of the Simple Past tense which means you can have some fantastic conversations with any of your English or American friends.  Alright? So keep listening for that and we’ll keep talking about it in the future lessons. So take care until then… see you soon, bye!

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-Tell me more, tell me more… did you get very far?

-Peter, sorry, could you stop singing? I.. I can’t read…

-Sorry, Jack, what are you reading?

-it’s a book about inventions.

-Really? Can I have a look?

-Sure. I’m reading about the computer.

-oh, Jack! You have a serious problem… You work hard all day long and then you spend your spare time reading about computers…

-The same applies to you… With music, I mean!

-Are you crazy? How can you compare music with computers? Anyway, music is my job. You know… We’re performing in a few days… I’m so nervous…

-I know, I know… But music isn’t the only thing in life! I’m studying for my European Computer Driver’s License. Does that count?

-Sure it does… But music is more interesting!

-That’s your opinion, Peter! For example did you know that Bill Gates founded Microsoft, but the computer goes back to the 19th century?

-They built a computer in the 19th century?

-No, John babbage had the idea for the first computer in the 19th century. He called it the ‘analytical engine’…

-Hey guys! What are you talking about? i’ve got a questionnaire for you. Are you ready?

-Not again! Why do you like answering all these surveys?

-I guess it’s a hobby… A little strange, I know. Anyway, it’s a way to learn something new about ourselves… You know?

-I’m curious, aren’t you?

-Well, are you ready?

-No, no! Not me! Please, leave me alone, Alice. I have more important things to think about!

-Bye, bye!

-Jack?

-Okay, okay! What are the questions? Shoot!

-So, this questionnair is about love… First question: when was the first time you kissed someone?

-Oh… That’s an interesting question… I kissed a girl for the first time two years ago.

-Come on, you’re joking!

-Yeah, I guess I am. No…  I kissed her in 1982.

-How did you know it was 1982?

-I remember it well. I met her during the summer holiday… I was riding my bicycle and when I saw her I fell off… She was so beautiful!

-Did you kiss her immediately?

-No, it took me a long time… She gave me a kiss for my birthday in January!

-Interesting… Very interesting… Next question…

-Saved by the bell! Just a moment, let me answer that.

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Welcome back again! It’s good to see you, now I have one more thing to tell you about the Simple Past tense and it’s all related to pronunciation, the pronunciation of the regular verbs. Now, it’s unusual but we have three different ways of pronouncing the verbs in the regular, in the past. So we need to look at the screen and study those together, it’s quite interesting.

Let’s take the first group, look at the verbs: ‘watch’, ‘dance’, ‘laugh’, ‘wash’ and ‘walk’. Now, if you notice those verbs end with a hard sound ‘watch’, ‘dance’, ‘laugh’, ‘wash’. Okay? Those are hard sounds. Now, when we add the ED, what happens is: the pronunciation becomes T, we don’t say ‘watched’, we eliminate the E and we say ‘watchT’, ok? Interesting? So look at that, ‘watchT, dancT, eliminate the E, pronounce the T, »dancT’, ‘laughT’, ‘washT’ and ‘walkT’. Okay?

Now the temptation is to say ‘watchED, dancED, laughED, washED’, but we eliminate the E and we add T. okay? WatchT, dancT. Good.

The next group, listen to the verbs: play, clean, study, close, snow. Now the pronunciation of the end of those verbs is soft, not like ‘walk’, which is hard, it’s soft, ‘play’, ‘clean’, ‘study’, ‘close’, ‘snow’. So the pronunciation of ED becomes D. It becomes ‘playD’, again we eliminate the E, we say ‘playD’, ‘cleanD’, ‘stydiD’, ‘closD’, ‘snowD’. Okay? Not ‘snowes’, ‘closed’, ‘studied’. But ‘studiD’, ‘closD’, ‘snowD’.

Alright, so first group with the T, second group with a D and the last group is… actually easy.

If a verb ends with a T or a D, then the pronunciation of ED becomes ID and in fact it’s impossible to pronounce it any other way. Take an example: ‘start’. It becomes ‘startID’, ‘startID’. nor ‘startED’, ‘startID’. Ok? So ‘want’ becomes ‘wantID’, ‘start’ becomes ‘startID’, ‘land — landID’, ‘paint — paintID’, alright? So those are the three groups of pronunciation, just keep practising them and they’ll soon become more automatic for you, don’t worry too much. And also when you’re listening to our friends in ‘That’s life!’ try and pick the pronunciation out. Alright? Great! I’ll see you again in the next lesson, bye!

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-Hello? Yes… Just a moment. Alice, it’s for you… Tom on the phone…

-Oh… No, no! Jack, can you tell him I’m out, please?

-No, Alice! I told him you were at home!

-Oh, make something up, please! I don’t want to talk to him… He’s so boring!! Tell him I’m ill or something else… Whatever you like!

-Uh… Hello? Tom? …Hello? Tom, I can’t hear you! Hello?…

-Thanks, jack! Okay, well, where were you? Let me see… Ah! When did you start school?

-What does school have to do with love? And what a stupid question… I started school when I was six years old. Everybody starts school at six years of age…

-Right! Did you enjoy school?

-I enjoyed university, yes. I enjoyed it very much. Excuse me, Alice… But do you really find this questionnaire all that interesting?

-Well, not really! Anyway, let’s go on… And why did you enjoy university?

-Because we had parties every Saturday night!

-Ham ha! No, really, why?

-Well… I learned a lot. And I made a lot of new friends.

-I lived on my own and… Oh, just a moment! Hello, just a minute. Alice, it’s John on the phone…

-Oh, Jack! Please, tell him that…

-I know… That you are not at home… or that you’re ill, I know the story…

-Thanks Jack!

-Hello?… John…

-Hello? John, I can’t hear you…

-Right, where were we?

-Wait a minute, Alice! Now it’s my turn! I have a question for you…

-Okay! Shoot!

-Could you please answer the phone next time? You know, I’m not your secretary!…

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Hi again! And welcome back to your live English language learning programme.

Alice has a lot of admirers, doesn’t she, girls? How does she do it? Now I want to do an exercise with you to help you practise recognizing past Tense verbs. Okay? So I’m going to become a newsreader, I’m going to read you the ‘Nine O’Clock News’ in English and I will use about twenty-two verbs in the past, I want you to listen carefully and try and recognize as many as you can. Alright? So, let me get in position… Are we ready? Okay!

Good evening and here’s the ‘Nine o’Clock News’! Yesterday ten thousand people left their workplace and went into the streets of London to protest against the goverment’s new labour law, the police sent out special forces to control the crowds and arrested fifteen people.

A Bengali tiger escaped from London Zoo yesterday morning, it went to Covent Garden and drank and ate everything in its path, the zookeepers found it in the garden of a pub and took it safely back to the zoo.

Prince Charles had an accident yesterday playing polo, they took him into the hospital in Scotland where they did a minor operation on his leg. When he spoke to the press this morning he said that he felt fine.

And now rugby, this afternoon England played Italy at Twickenham and Italy lost by 3 points. The Italian captain broke his leg, the English captain said the game was close and that the Italians played very well.

That’s all from me, goodnight.

So? How many verbs did you get? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty? Twenty-two? Alright let’s go and check them on the board now, together. So, we started with: ‘Good evening here’s the Nine O’Clock News’…’Yesterday ten thousand people left their workplace’, ‘left’ is the Past Tense of ‘leave’, good! ‘And went into the streets of London’, ‘went’… past Tense of ‘go’. Roght, ‘to protest against the goverment’s new labour law’. Then ‘the police sent out special forces’, ‘sent’… ast Tense of ‘send’ … ‘to control the crowds and arrested’,  which is the Past Tense of ‘arrest’, it’s a regular verb ‘arrested fifteen people’. Okay? How many so far? Ok… ‘A Bengali tiger escaped from London’, regular verb, ‘escaped from’, ‘escape’, ‘it went to Covent Garden market’, ‘went’ Past Tense of ‘go’ ‘and drank and ate’, ‘drank’ Past Tense of ‘drink’,  ‘ate’ past Tense of ‘eat’, ‘the zookeepers found it in the garden of a pub’, ‘found’ paste Tense of ‘find’, good! ‘And took it safely back’, ‘took’, difficult, ‘took’ past Tense of ‘take’, ‘take, took’, okay. ‘Prince Charles had an accident’, ‘had’ is the past Tense of ‘have’, ‘they took him’, ‘took him’, you know, past Tense of ‘take’, ‘to a hospital in Scotland where they did him a minor operation’, ‘did’, Paste Tense of… ‘do’, yeah! ‘When he spoke to the press’, ‘spoke’ is the Past Tense of ‘speak’, ‘he said’, Past Tense of ‘say’, ‘that hw felt fine’, ‘felt’ past Tense of ‘feel’. Great!

‘Rugby’, ‘this afternoon England played’, Past Tense of ‘play’, ‘Italy at Twickenham and Italy lost’, ‘lost’ is the Past Tense of ‘lose’, ok? ‘Lose’. ‘The Italian captain broke his leg’, ‘broke’ Past Tense of ‘break’, ‘the English captain said’, past Tense of ‘say’, we saw, ‘the game was close’, ‘was’ is the Past tense of … yeah, the verb ‘to be’, and ‘that the Italians played very well’, ‘played’, regular verb, Past Tense of ‘play’, ‘play’, ‘played’.

Well done, how many did you get?  Twenty-two? Twenty? Eighteen? Nineteen? I know it’s difficult at the beginning, and in fact that is, often one of the most difficult things is recognizing English pronunciation, that’s why it’s very important for you to learn good pronunciation at the beginning because it’ll really help your comprehension.

So… take care and I’ll see you in the next lesson for more practice, bye.

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-Hi, Sharon! What’s up?

-Hi, Jack. I’m okay!… Don’t worry! Everything is just fine!

-Really? I don’t think so… Come on, tell me what’s happening… Some problems with Peter?

-No! Well… Yes! But I don’t think you are the right person to talk with!

-Maybe you’re right. But I can’t stand seeing you  so sad!

-And this? What does it mean?

-Don’t worry! I’m not leaving for ever! My colleague Lucy invited me to spend the weekend at her house. She has a cottage in the countryside, near Brighton. We’re leaving in the evening, right after work!

-The countryside is lovely there!

-I hope so! I need a break! Living with Peter is getting hard! He is so nervous about his concert… He can only think and talk about that! He seems miles away! And as for his music… He’s excessive! He goes on singing all day long! He doesn’t speak with me anymore… He sings with me: ‘Sharon, can you pass me the salt, please?’

-I like it when you smile. I think a weekend in the countryside is exactly what you need!

-I didn’t know you liked the country so much…

-Are you joking? I love the countryside. It’s so quiet and relaxing.

-A lot of people think it’s boring.

-Well… They don’t know what they are missing…

-What, jack? Are you using cliches now?

-…Like: the countryside is safe and the city is dangerous?

-…Or: the country is clean and the city is dirty?

-And don’t forgrt: the country is cheap, too!

-Yes, there’s that, too. The city is very expensive. Just think how much the rent is for this apartment!

-Don’t remind me! I have to pay mine tomorrow morning!

-Well, Jack! It was good talking with you! You nake me laugh! Sometimes… I think about us…  About how we were together once…

-We were… We are… A wonderful couple! Don’t forgrt it!

-Alright!

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Hi again! How are you? So, jack and Sharon both like the countryside, do they? Can you imagine them? Alone? In a house in the country? Cheek to cheek? We’ll see… could be interesting… Now, in this lesson I want to talk to you about adjectives, adjectives.

In that last episode they talked about the city and the countryside, so let’s look at some adjectives that we could use to describe the city and the country. For example the countryside is ‘beautiful, but often cities are… the opposite of beautiful? We say ugly. ‘Beautiful’, ‘ugly’. Alright? Usually the countryside is ‘quiet’, and the city is ‘noisy’, ‘noisy’.

The countryside is usually ‘safe’ whereas cities can be… yeah, ‘dangerous’. Life in the countryside is ‘slow’ whereas life in the city is ‘fast’.

The countryside is ‘rural’ whereas the city is ‘urban’, alright?

Usually the countryside is ‘charming’  and often cities are ‘modern’.

Life sometimes in the countryside can be ‘boring’… but life in cities is usually ‘interesting’.

Life in the countryside can be very ‘relaxing’. Whereas the city is usually ‘exciting’.

Countryside is very ‘clean’… Anne would like that, whereas often cities are ‘dirty’.

The countryside is usually ‘cheap’, whereas cities  are often ‘expensive’.

Ok? So, those are typical adjectives to describe countryside and city.

Now let’s think of people and things. Well, people can be ‘young’, but things, we wouldn’t say ‘things are young’, we would say ‘things are new’, so a book is new, but my brother is young. The opposite of ‘young’ is ‘old’, ok? ‘Old’, and we also use that for things, so we could talk about an old book.

Now, some people are ‘fat’, but when we describe a book in that term, then we say ‘the book is thick’, not ‘fat’. We can say ‘a person is thin’, and we can also say ‘a book is thin’.

Then somebody is… two meters tall, ‘somebody is tall’, whereas we would say for a building…’the building is big’, or ‘high’.

Then the opposite is ‘short’, ‘person is short’ and the thing would be ‘little’.

Now there’s another very interesting thing about adjectives to learn… is that adjectives are divided into syllables. So for example if you look at the adjective ‘beautiful’, how many syllables are there? ‘Beau’, ‘ti’, ‘ful’ three syllables. ‘Beau’, ‘ti’, ‘ful’. ‘Beau’, ‘ti’, ‘ful’. Ok? Let’s look at another example: ‘quiet’, listen to that, ‘qui’, ‘et’, two syllables ‘qui’, ‘et’.

Another one, ‘safe’, is one syllable, ‘safe’, how about ‘dangerous’? How many? Dangerous… ‘dan’, ‘ge’, ‘rous’, three. Okay?

One more, ‘interesting’, that’s quite difficult, ‘in’, ‘te’, ‘res’, ‘ting’, how many syllables? Four,  ‘in’, ‘te’, ‘res’, ‘ting’, pronunciation: ‘interesting’.

‘Relaxing’, ‘re’, ‘lax’, ‘ing’ three. ‘Cheap’, one. Okay? Soall adjective in English are divided into syllables, you can count them and that’s important when you want to compare things which is what we’ll be looking at in another lesson.

Now we’re going to go back to ‘That’s life!’ and Anne wants to buy a car. And Jack is giving her advice. Listen to the way that they use the word ‘should’ and then we’ll look at that in the next lesson, alright? See you then, bye!

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-Oh… Hi Jack! Do you have a moment?

-I always have time for you, Anne!

-Can I ask you a question?

-Sure, how can I help you?

-Well, I need your advice. I want to buy a new car.

-Ah, you should buy a fast, expensive sports car!

-Come on, I can’t afford a sports car. My car’s old, it’s too big and it’s difficult to drive.

-Very good reasons to buy a new car.

-Yes! I’d like to buy a small, stylish car that’s not too expensive.

-Hmmm, a small, stylish car that’s not too expensive…

-…And for young people!

-Of course, you shouldn’t buy a car for old people.

-So, what car should I buy? I don’t understand anything about cars.

-Well, what about buying a Ferrari?

-Are you joking?

-Just kidding… Let me think… oh… Can I have a look? How about this car?

-It’s nice! Isn’t it expensive?

-All cars are expensive these days. By the way, did you hear about Sharon?

-Yes! I met Peter in the afternoon. He told me they had a quarrel… But I don’t think we should worry about it. Do you?

-Hmm… Maybe we should… What do you think of Sharon, Anne?

-She’s vert pretty…

-Yes, she is.

-What about me, Jack? Do you think I’m good-looking?

-Come on Anne, you are very attractive!

-Do you really think so?

-Yes, Anne… You are always on my mind!

-Oh! Anne, I’m sorry…

-It doesn’t matter, Jack…

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Hello again and welcome back!

Did you hear what Jack said to Anne? He said: ‘You should get yourself a really fast, expensive, sports car.’ Now… do you think that’s practical advice with all the money that Anne hasn’t got? Well, he did say one thing which is useful. He used ‘should’… anf that’s what we’re going to study now: the use of ‘should’. Because we use ‘should’ in English when we want to give advice to someone. So, if i say to you for example: «Oh, I’ve got a terrible headache’, then you give me advice. And you could say for example: ‘Well, you should take an aspirin.’ ‘Should’, ‘should’ written S-H-O-U-L-D, very easy, because we say: I should, you should, he should, it should, she should, we should, they should, fantastic! Never changes.  So, ‘should’ plus the infinitive.

Now I want to do something with you. I’ll say something and I want you to give me some advice. Alright? So for example I say: ‘God, I’m really tired. I’m really tired…’. okay, yeah!  ‘You should go to bed’ or ‘You should rest.’ Exactly.

Next one: ‘I’m getting fat’, ‘I’m getting fat.’ Yeah, exactly: ‘You should eat less.’ Or the negative would be: ‘You shouldn’t eat so much’, ‘you shouldn’t eat so much’. Okay?

Next one: ‘Oh, my back, my bach really herts.’ Exactly: ‘You should see a doctor’ or ‘You should go to a chiropractor’, for example. Great! Now: ‘I don’t speak English very well’, ‘I don’t speak English very well.’ Yes, exactly! ‘You should watch ‘English 2day’ all the time.’

Alright? Fantastic, so that’s the form ‘should’ for suggestions. Let’s look at them now on the screen just to consolidate that.

So, ‘should’. In the positive form the examples are: you should take a rest, she should take an aspirin, they should see a doctor, he should stop eating sweets, and I should study English every day. Okay? So, the form is ‘should’ plus the infinitive without ‘to’.

The negative: she shouldn’t, shouldn’t. Look at the pronunciation, ‘shouldn’t work so much’. ‘Ishouldn’t go to bed so late, ‘you shouldn’t go to that film’, ‘he shouldn’t smoke so much’. Alright?

Tthe question, when you’re asking for advice is simple, you put ‘should’ first and then the subject, so the examples are: ‘Should I see a dentist?’, ‘What should I do?’ and ‘Should we practise English every day?’ ‘Yes, we should.’ Okay, good.

So that is the language that you can use whenever you want to give advice to somebody in English. ‘Should’ plus the infinitive. So ‘Should you come and see me everyday?’ ‘Yes, you should!’ Okay and you should come to the next lesson so I’ll see you there… Take care, bye!

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-Hello, hello and welcome to ‘Music World’. And welcome to Tony Moore, our music expert! In this weeks’ edition we want to celebrate the life of a great musician from Liverpool. maybe the greatest pop musician of all time! Right Tony?

-Yes, that’s right. And of course we’re talking about John Lennon!

-Yes, John Lennon, a famous singer  and songwriter but also sometimes a controversial figure.

-Ok Tony, let’s look at the important moments of his short but very successful career!

-Well, John was born on October 9th 1940 in Liverpool. He had a difficult childhood, his parents separated and John lived with his aunt Mimi. She was very very strict and she didn’t like John spending all his time playing the guitar!

-So John had a difficult childhood. And what about The Beatles? When did this amazing pop group start playing together?

-In 1958 John met Paul McCartney at art school in Liverpool. This was the beginning of their musical journey together. Shortly afterwards George Harrison joined them.  At the beginning the band was called the ‘Quarrymen’ but 1959 they changed the name to ‘The Beatles’.

-Oh, interesting! Where did the band play?

-Well in Liverpool of course, at the Cavern Club. But they gave their first series of performances in Hamburg at the Star Club in the city’s red-light district. The Beatles were very happy and had lots of fun in Hamburg. It was here in hamburg that they developed their look and in particular their famous hairstyle that suddenly became fashionable all over the world.

-Ah… that hairstyle! They were called ‘moptops’, weren’t they?

-Yes, that’s right.

-What was their first number one single?

-The single ‘Please, please me.’ It was an immediate success and went to the top of the charts!

-That’s right!

-Well… the four lads from Liverpool played together as The Beatles until 1970. The last album was ‘Abbey Road’. Then the band broke up.

-To the disappointment of all their fans! And then? What did John do next?

-He started a successful solo career. ‘Imagine’ and ‘Plastic Ono Band’ were popular albums.

-Did John ever try to re-unite The Beatles?

-Oh no! His relationship with Yoko Ono became very, very important for him. John and Yoko started to get involved in politics, they began to spread a message of world peace.

-And when was he killed?

-John was killed on the 8th of December 1980 outside his New York apartment in the Dakota Building.

-Who killed him?

-Mark David Chapman, a Beatles fan.

-And why?

-Well he was crazy, he was mad. He said Lennon had betrayed the ideals of his generation!

-Yes, well, John was only 40 when he died but he certainly isn’t forgotten.

-No, he certainly isn’t forgotten.

-At today’s there’s a garden in Central Park called Strawberry Fields to remember John’s life, it’s near the Dakota Building.

-Ok, so… John Lennon… John Lennon, perhaps the greatest pop musician of all time. Thanks to our expert Tony Moore.

-Thank you, goodbye.

-Goodbye.

See you again next week for another edition of ‘Music World’! Goodbye!

__________________________________________________________________

The Beatles! What a band! A band is a group of musicians that play together, for example a jazz band. When the band plays pop or rock music we often say a pop group or a rock group.

A musician is someone who plays music, there are jazz musicians, classical mysicians, pop musicians. We say that someone plays music or plays a musical instrument, for example, John played the guitar, I play the piano. Do you play an instrument?

A singer is also a musician, their voice is their instrument, they sing! A musician plays music and a singer sings songs. John was also a song writer, a songwriter is a person who writes a song. And the words of a song are called lyrics. The lyrics of John Lennon’s songs are very beautiful.

The Beatles recorded lots of albums. An album is a record or CD with 8 or more songs on it.

A single is a record or CD with just one song. Often a single becomes very popular and we say that it ‘goes on the top of the charts’. ‘The charts’ is the list of the most popular songs that week, so when a single goes on the top of the charts it means that it’s at the top of the list and very popular.

When a song is number one on the list we call it ‘a number one single’. ‘Please, please me’ was a number one single. But bands also play ‘live’ in front of an audience. We say they ‘give a performance’.

So we can say ‘The Rolling Stones are playing in Rome tonight’ or ‘The Rolling Stones are giving a performance in Rome tonight’. A performance can be just one song or piece of music but when a band or singer plays lots of songs we call it a concert.

Unfortunately some bands, like The Beatles, separate and we say they ‘break up’. The Beatles broke up in 1970 and John Lennon started his solo career.  A solo career is when a musician records songs alone without the band.

It’s time for me to say goodbye to all you music lovers. See you next time.

___________________________________________________________________

Good evening and welcome to this week’s edition of ‘Let’s talk’. In the studio with me this evening are our commentators Marie and Tom.

-How are you?

-Fine, thanks Eric.

-Fine, thanks Eric.

-Very good! Today let’s talk, let’s talk about one of the world most famous men in the world. I mean Bill Gates: the world’s top businessman and the richest man in the world. I have a question: how did he become so successful?

-I can answer this question with one word: ‘Windows’, the most widely used computer operating system in the world.

-Yes, yes, that’s true. It’s almost every computer in the world uses Windows. Let’s go back in time a little! How did Bill Gates arrive at where he is today?

-I’d say thanks to his business skills! At the end of the 80’s when he founded Microsoft he understood where the computer industry was going.

-That’s right! At that time computers were very big, very expensive and only large companies could use them. gates understood that smaller personal computers, the PCs we use today, were the future. of course, he wanted all these PCs to use his software.

-So he understood 20 years ago how we use computers today, that’s a good businessman.

-But of course you need more than intuition to become the world’s top businessman.

-Yes of course, to become the world’s number one businessman you need an aggressive business philosophy. Foe example. from the beginning Bill Gates did everything to stop the illegal copying of Microsoft programmes. until this time people didn’t buy software programmes, they shared them freely or copied them: Bill gates created the market for computer software.

-But that’s not all! Bill Gates was very ambitious too! Do you want he wanted to be a millionaire by the age of 30?

-Yes, and he warked very, very hard! For many years he only slept six hours a day, he was a real workaholic.

-Ha, ha, ha… So also helped coffee producers too!

-I guess so.

-After he became a multi-millionaire with Windows what did he do next?

-He turned his attention to the Internet. initially he didn’t think the Internet was important, this was a business mistake. Microsoft developed Internet Explorer 4 and three years later Microsoft won the browser war and destroyed its competitors.

-So today almost every computer in the world uses a Microsoft programme.

-That’s right! Well, Bill Gates is a very, very successful businessman. Is there anything about him to make him likeable or just a bit human?

-Well, his charity work, this is very important for him.

-Bill and his wife Melinda now work for The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: in 2000 Bill gave half his fortune to the foundation to fund charity work.

-This is fantastic. Bill Gates, a successful man, with very good business skills, but with a big heart too!

Well, today we have learned about one of the most important business leaders of our age. Thanks very much marie, and thank you Tom! Goodbye!

-Goodbye.

-Thank you. Goodbye.

-And goodbye to you. And see you again soon for the next edition of ‘Let’s talk’.

_________________________________________________________________

Well, Bill Gates is definitely the most famous businessman in the world, but i didn’t know he was so generous!

A businessman or a businesswoman is a person who works for a company or for themselves. And the are always looking for ways to make money.

To be a successful businessman you need good business skills, in other words, good ideas to sell more and to make more money!

Bill Gates has very good business skills, he founded Microsoft! To found a company means to start a company and Bill Gates founded Microsoft beacause ne knew where the computer market was going. What is the computer market? The people who buy computers. The people who buy a product are the market of that product.

Bill gates even created a market for computer software. To create a market for a product means means you are the first person or company to sell that product. He also destroyed his competitors. Competitors are the people who sell the same product as you. Of course to be so successful Bill worked a lot. We say he was a workaholic. Worksholic comes from the word ‘alcoholic’ a person that drinks a lot of alcohol. And he became a multimillionaire with his business philosophy.

A multimillionairehas lots of millions of euros or dollars. Someone who has one million is called a millionaire.

A business philosophy is how someone wants to run a business. To run a business means to manage a business.

Bill gates runs his business very well! And not only, he gave half of his money to a foundation which is an organization that funds charity work.

To fund something means to give money to an activity. And Charity work is when people work to help each other.

So, very smart but also very generous! I think I would be generous like Bill if I were a multimillionaire too!

See you soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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