Welcome to The English Corner

 This blog has been designed to help Secondary School students to practise and improve their English skills. Here you'll find several resources, exercises, etc. that will help to regard the English language as easy and interesting.

 The blog is divided into different sections that correspond to the main skills and linguistic areas and some other aspects:

                       1.    Instructions  → This page
                       2.    Listening
                       3.    Vocabulary
                       4.    Grammar
                       5.    Speaking
                       6.    Phonetics
                       7.    Reading
                       8.    Writing
                       9.    Check       → A self-evaluation section
                     10.    Stations
                     11.    Project Work 
                    12.     Key          → The solutions

At the top of the page, you have a link for each of these sections. If you click on it you’ll find all the activities related to that section. Isn’t that useful?

To do the exercises you'll find in this blog, you can write the answers to the questions in a comment under the entry. To see an image bigger, just click on it.

Once you have finished the activities, you can correct them with the section 12. Key. There you have the correct answers for the exercises.

You’re all welcome to participate! Enjoy English!!

Amanda Escoto

Andrea Pardines

Domenico Quartara

LISTENING 01

1. Listen to the following text.

Nice today, isn't it? During the first days of your visit to Britain, you will discover that the weather often changes. In Britain you often don't have the same weather for two consecutive days. In fact, in Britain you often don't have the same weather for two consecutive hours! First it's sunny, so you leave your coat at the hotel... but then it starts to rain. You go back for the coat and suddenly it's sunny again!  Sometimes the weather changes like this all day. In fact, the weather probably changes all night too, but you can't see it at night. You will also discover that the British love talking about the weather. In the Sahara, you can’t really say, 'Hot today, isn't it?' because it's hot every day. In Britain, however, you can say, 'Horrible, isn't it? It'll probably be nice this afternoon', or 'Nice, isn't it? It'll probably be horrible this afternoon'. In fact, in Britain you can talk about the weather all day, and everything that you say... the other person already knows!

2. How many times do these words occur in the text?

a) Britain

b) Weather

c) Rain

3. What do you think the text is about?

4. Write true or false:

a)  The weather never changes.

b)  During your visit to Britain, you won't notice anything peculiar about the weather.

c)  In Britain the really like talking about weather.

d) In the UK it's always raining.

e)  Britain has the same weather everyday

5. Talk to your classmates about the weather in your area. Write, at least, sentences.

Please, paste your answers in a comment below.

VOCABULARY

1. Match the symbols with the words. Then listen, check and repeat.

cloudy - foggy - rainy - snowy - sunny - windy

1. F – foggy

2.   Look for the word which doesn't fit:

a)  Spring, autumn, hell, summer

b)  Snow, rain, cook, hail

c)  Earthquake, flood, hurricane, rainbow

d)  Ray, thunder, flash, wind

e)  Sun, shadow, cloud, sky

f)  Dry, desert, jungle, plain

g)  Degrees, temperature, thermometer, sun

3. Complete the sentences according to the picture. (You can only use each word once)

cloudy - raining - snowing - temperatures - two - weather - foggy - warm

a)  ______ in Scotland will be around _______ degrees.

b)  In the Scottish mountains, it will be ________ .

c)  Further to the south, the _______ will be very unpleasant.

d)  The east of England will be ______ with a few_______ occasionally.

e)  In Northern Ireland, it will be ______, but________ .

Please, paste your answers in a comment below.

GRAMMAR I (WILL)

Please, paste all your answers in a comment below.

GRAMMAR II (GOING TO)

Please, paste your answers in a comment below.

Listening 02

1. Listen to the dialogue.

 The Oregon Weather Forecast

Weather Forecaster 1:

Good afternoon and welcome to the weather forecast. Let's take a look at the weather outside now. What's it like? Well, it's currently raining and cloudy in southern Oregon while northern Oregon is cold and clear. The sun is shining, but it's rather cold up here in the North! The temperature is currently 45 degrees in the southern Oregon and only 30 degrees in the North.

Weather Forecaster 2:

Shall we see what the weather will be like tomorrow? Well, it will be rainy in the morning in southern Oregon and windy in northern Oregon. In the afternoon, The South will see cloudy weather with some rain later in the day. Northern Oregon will also see rain turning to snow and quite windy, with winds coming from the North-East.

That's the weather forecast for this afternoon. Have a good day!

2. Choose the correct answer or phrase to fill in the blank. Each question has only one correct answer.

1.  What time of day is it?

  a)   morning

  b)   afternoon

  c)   evening

2. What's the weather like in southern Oregon at the moment?

  a)   rainy and cloudy

  b)   sunny and windy

  c)   sunny and cold

3.  What's the weather like in northern Oregon at the moment?

  a)   rainy and cloudy

  b)   sunny and windy

  c)   sunny and cold

Please, paste all your answers in a comment below.

Speaking

·  Dialogue: In pairs, create a dialogue based on your future predictions for this weekend weather forecast.

First, record your dialogue. Then, paste the file in a comment.

 

Phonetics

· Phonetics: Intonation. Listen and repeat. 

Falling Intonation ↓	Rising Intonation ↑
What are you going to do?	Are you going to bed?
Who are you going to see?	Will you be back soon?
When will you finish?	Would you like to come with us?

  

Practise repeating the sentences. Then, when you think you know how to pronounce them correctly,  record yourself and post the link in a comment.