PET SESSION 2

Hi everybody,
Today you are going to have some practice for the final exam.
Here are the links to the different sections.

Reading:

 

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading3.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading4.html

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading_part5.htm

 

Listening:

 

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part3.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part4.htm

 

Vocabulary:

 

http://www.examenglish.com/vocabulary/B1_vocabulary_topics.htm

VIDEO 3: AN ACTIVITY YOU LIKE TO DO IN YOUR FREE TIME

Record a for 2-minute mobile phone video presentation about an activity you like to do in your free time.

Say:

·         What the activity is,
·         How often you do it,
·         Where you do it,
·         What the activity involves,
·         Why you enjoy doing this activity.
·         Mention anything else you think is important.

 

POST 7: DREAMS

“I have a dream...” This is something I have heard many times in my life: these were the words that Martin Luther King repeated in his famous speech for racial equality back in 1963,  they were the words that Abba used to sing on every radio station when I was a university student, and they are the words people say when they talk about a recurring dream (“I have a dream that repeats over and over  again...” ).

This week you have chosen to talk about both kind of dreams, those you have when you are sleeping and those that come to your mind when you are awake .

 

Here are some questions to guide you to write your post. You don't have to answeer them all, just choose one or two from each group.
Remember to write comments on three of your classmates' blogs and make sure you write no less than 240 words.

 

1) What are dreams? Are dreams messages sent from our unconscious, predictions of the future, or what?

2) Do you usually remember your dreams? Do you usually dream in black and white or in color? Can you tell us about a recurring dream you have or the nicest dream that you can remember?

3) Do you ever daydream? Do you think you can achieve your dreams or  do you think that having dreams and aspirations is a waste of time?

4) If you had lots of money or political power what would you do with it?  What is your dream for the future?

 

Please read my sample post and make sure to leave a comment on 3 of your classmates’  posts and to write 160 words.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> O <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

 Dreams, dreams, dreams…

 “I’m dreaming my life away…” goes a song that I used to listen to when I was a child. To me dreams are mainly representations of my hopes and fears, and also answers to my questions. So I pay a lot of attention to my dreams.

My dreams are usually very colourful and very well defined, sometimes they are  like short stories or films with characters, costumes, and  a plot. I rarely have black and white dreams, -unless my dream is about a silent movie!

I used to daydream a lot when I was younger, I used to spend hours thinking about the things I wanted to have, the places I wanted to visit, and the things I wanted to do. I think daydreaming is not a bad thing, provided that you start planning and begin doing things to make your dreams come true. The formula “dream + action” has proved very useful to me.

If I had millions of dollars I would visit more places and buy beautiful things for me and the people I love, but I would also help some people to refurbish their houses so that they could improve their living conditions and I would run high-quality schools in poverty-striken zones with really committed teachers to help breach the gap between rich and poor people in our country –to begin with.

POST 6: HOW GREEN ARE YOU?

My heart must be green. Ever since I was a skinny little kid I have been fond of nature. I must have been six when I was walking in the street and bumped into a heap of a very simple type of creeping plant. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the plant that had been cut off and unmercifully thrown away. So, by way of compensation, I picked up a piece of the plant, took it home and planted it. It didn’t take the little plant very long to grow bigger and thankfully offer me larger and greener leaves. And that was the beginning of my friendship with nature, which later developed into care for all type of living things and care for the planet.
Some years ago I started recycling things like cardboard, aluminum tins and tetra-pack cartons, which is not easy when you live in a small flat and the recycling points are far from your home, but I think it’s been worth the effort.
I must admit that I don’t walk very much and I use public transportation a lot, but that is because my place of work is rather far away from home to walk or ride there. I wish there were more facilities for byke riders in our city, as in The Neatherlands. When that happens I’ll go into a shop a buy a nice bicycle for me to ride everywhere.
I’ve been a suppoorter of Green Peace for some years now. Well, I don’t jump into little boats and go to Antartica to try and stop Japanese whale factory ships, but I donate to Greenpeace on a monthly basis. So, even when I wouldn’t dare personally participate to stop whale slaughter, at least I’m contributing to prevent it happening, aren’t I?

This week´s post is related to looking after the environment. So, we want you to tell us how far down the green road you are, in other words, what shade of green you are: an Eco-Hero, a Tree-Hugger-Hater or a Green-in-Between.
Here you are some questions to help you start off writing your post:

- Where do people learn about enviromentally friendly practices?
- Have you incorported recycling into your habits? Describe
- Do you use a bike or your legs instead of a car?
- Have you joined or supported any eco-organisations? Why/Why not?
- What else have you done /would you like to do?
- What have you done to reduce your carbon footprint?
- What's missing in our society/Santiago ragarding this issue?

Keep in mind that the number of words is 240 and don't forget to make comments on at least 3 of your classmates posts.

(Tree-hugger: an environmentalist or one who believes trees and all living things should not be cut down or harmed. Someone who works to protect the environment from destruction or pollution)

SHORT SURVEY

At Plataforma Programa Inglés - http://www.lapetus.uchile.cl/japeto/interior.php?id=105 - we have uploaded a short survey that we want all students to answer. It won't take you more than 5 minutes. Can you help us?

PET SESSION 1

PET (Preliminary English Test) Practice

Session 1 (week 10)

Reading:

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading1.htm
http://www.examenglish.com/PET/reading1.htm
http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading2.htm

Listening:

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part1.htm
http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part2.htm

Vocabulary:

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_vocab.htm

POST 5: BOOKS AND READING

When I was a kid my father used to keep all the newspapers he bought in a room, along with some magazines, books and the notebooks my brothers and I had worked with in the previous years, and also old cards and toys. Everything in this messy little room (huge for a little six / seven year old boy like me) was laid on some improvised shelves my dad had built, and, for some unknown reason, he forbade us to get into it. So being in that room was thrilling and exciting, because we suspected something misterious was hidden in there, lurking somewhere in the books or in the magazines. That way, after stealthily closing the door behind us, we sat on the floor of this room and read most of the stuff that got into our hands and, without noticing it, we became magazine and book worms.

This week you have chosen to write about Literature and Books, so below you will find a sample post and some questions to guide your writing. Please choose one or two questions to write the introduction and about the things you like reading, but answer all the four questions about a book you have read recently.

Introduction: Your reading habits.
-Are you a book worm or do you only read books from time to time?
-Did you read books when you were a child?
-How many books have you read in your life?

Things you like reading.-What sort of books do you enjoy reading? Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?
-Who is your favorite writer?
-What is your favorite book?
-Who is your favorite character from literature?

Tell us a little about a book you have read recently:
-Did you enjoy it?
-How long did it take to read?
-Briefly, in one or two sentences, what is the story about?
-Who would you reccomend it to?


Make sure you write at least 220 words and leave comments on three of your classmates’ posts.



I want those two books! I answered decidedly when my father, who had taken me to a bric-a-brac street market, asked me what I wanted him to buy me. I was around six years old back then and, since we didn’t have a TV set at home, reading was my favourite thing to do, and I devoured Disney cartoons, fairy tales, short stories and kid’s novels. So, answering Dad’s question was easy. I still wonder were those two books ended up.
Now I enjoy reading short stories and novels. I really like Julio Cortazar’s short stories, so I think I’ll start rereading them one of these days, and I enjoy reading both fiction and non-fiction novels. I have read a lot of detective stories written in English lately, mainly by Ruth Rendell and P D James, but my favourite writers are some Latin american authors, such as, Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Marquez and Isabel Allende.
I recently read a book called “A Special Relationship”, by Douglas Kennedy. It’s about an American journalist in her late thirties who gets pregnant to a British correspondent she meets in the middle of a war. Everything is a bed of roses at the beginning, but suddenly things change dramatically and her life becomes miserable. It didn’t take me too long to read this novel because the story is very catchy and is surprisingly well written, especially considering the fact that the author of this book is a man, but the main character and first person narrator is a woman; he is able to write as if he were a woman very convincingly. I wouldn’t hesitate to reccomend this book to you.