english b1

Topics

1. University
2. Cinema
3. Music
4. Home/family
5. Reading
6. Computers
7. Clothes
8. Food
9. Travel
10. Sport

1. University

What university do you go to?

What faculty are you in?

What year are you in?

What degree course are you doing?

Which branch of the degree course are you following?

What languages are you studying?

Why did you choose this university?

Why did you decide to study Arabic/English etc?

Did you enjoy your first year at university?

What do you think of this faculty?

Roma Three/the third University of Rome

I'm in my first year

I'm good at languages

I like learning languages

I like finding out about other countries.

It's easy to get to. It's near where I live

I chose this university because it's smaller than La Sapienza

choose/chose/chosen (verb) choice (noun)

I'm interested in language.

It was very strange at first, but then I got used to it

I was very disorientated at first because it's so different from school

The timetable is very confusing

A lot of the lessons clash

Lectures, timetable, laboratory, professors, exams, oral exams, library

Books/Reading

1. What sort of books do you like?
2. Who's your favorite writer?
3. What book are you reading at the moment?
4. What was the most boring book you studied at school?
5. When and where do you usually read?
6. How many books do you read a month?
7. Have you ever read a book in English? What was it?
8. What book would you suggest to someone who is learning Italian?
9. Why do you think Italian students don't read very much?
10. Do you ever go to a public library?
11. What was your favorite book when you were a child?
12. What newspapers or magazines do you read?

non-fiction/fiction

• short stories, novels, whodunits, biographies, thrillers, classics, bestsellers, science fiction, spy stories, detective novels, romantic novels

Paperback/hardback newspapers, periodicals, magazines. I have a subscription to a gardening magazine.

Who wrote it? It was written by writer, author, novelist

What's the title? What's it called? What's it about? It's about

The main character is

It's set in England

The plot, characterization, dialogue is very good

1. What kind of food do you like best?

2. What do you usually have for your evening meal?

3. Do you often go out to restaurants or pizzerias?

4. What is the best place to eat in your home town?

5. What was the best/worst meal you have ever had?

6. Who does the cooking in your house?

7. Are you a good cook?

8. What would you cook for a special occasion?

Meals: breakfast, brunch, elevenses, lunch/dinner, tea/supper/dinner.

The word "meal" is often used to substitute lunch or dinner.

Let's go out for a meal. Lovely meal.

Starters, main course, dessert/sweet, leftovers, seconds.

Menu, wine list, dish.

How would you like your steak, sir?

Rare, medium or well done?

It was tasty/delicious, yummy. It was crisp, crunchy, tender.

It was disgusting, tough, greasy, too salty, watery.

It was burnt, overcooked, raw.

The bread was stale. The fruit was rotten.

The meat/milk was off.

Eat, munch, chew, chomp.

Let's have a snack, a bite to eat.

I'm a bit hungry, peckish.

I go to the stadium once a month

I go to see Lazio play once a month

score: two all, two one, two nil

foul, corner, penalty, offside

He was sent off. He was given a red card.

Indoor activities: playing cards/chess/

draughts, doing crossword puzzles, doing

jigsaw puzzles, playing board games

Places: football field/pitch, tennis court,

boxing ring, skating rink, racetrack

equipment: tennis racquet, golf club, baseball

bat, skis, ski sticks, ski boots

LANGUAGE FOR WRITING

Informal language for social media

When we write for social media, we often:

• Miss words out, especially grammar words such as a/the/it/my/is/am/it

Ex: Sitting on bed (I'm sitting on my bed)

• Use abbreviations or short forms

Ex:

• people = ppl
• with = w/
• especially = esp
• should = shld

• Use letters or numbers for words which sound the same

Ex:

• you = u
• are = r
• see = c
• for = 4

AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED = per quanto mi riguarda

GET READY = prepararsi

By CHANCE = x caso

GRAMMAR FOCUS - NARRATIVE FORMS

• In narratives, we use the past simple for the main events in a story.
• We use the past continuous for background events, or longer actions interrupted by a shorter event.
• We use the past perfect for events that happened before the main past time we are talking about.