Merry Christmas

"Half The World Away" (Oasis - Aurora's cover)

I would like to leave this city
This old town don't smell too pretty and
I can feel the warning signs running around my mind
And when I leave this island
I book myself into a soul asylum
I can feel the warning signs running around my mind

So here I go
I'm still scratching around in the same old hole
My body feels young but my mind is very old
So what do you say?
You can't give me the dreams that are mine anyway
You're half the world away
You're half the world away

And when I leave this planet
You know I'd stay but I just can't stand it and
I can feel the warning signs running around my mind
And if I can leave this spirit
I'll find me a hole and I'll live in it
I can feel the warning signs running around my mind

So here I go
I'm still scratching around in the same old hole
My body feels young but my mind is very old
So what do you say?
You can't give me the dreams that are mine anyway
You're half the world away
You're half the world away

You're half the world away
I've been lost, I've been found
But I don't feel down
You're half the world away
I've been lost, I've been found
But I don't feel down
I don't feel down

 "Real Love" (John Lennon)

All my little plans and schemes
Lost like some forgotten dream
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you

Just like little girls and boys
Playing with their little toys
Seems like all they really were doing
Was waiting for you

Don't need to be alone
No need to be alone

It's real love
It's real, yes it's real love
It's real

From this moment on I know
Exactly where my life will go
Seems that all I really was doing
Was waiting for love

Don't need to be afraid
No need to be afraid

It's real love
It's real, yes it's real love
It's real

Thought I'd been in love before,
But in my heart I wanted more
Seems like all I really was doing
Was waiting for you

Don't need to be alone
No need to be alone

It's real love
Yes it's real, yes it's real love
It's real, yes it's real love...

Video Time with Real English conversations

Have you ever lived in another country? A little bit of practice: listening ( first without subtitles) and speaking.





Exercises on this video here.


Another video to practise the contrast between the Present Perfect and the Past Simple tenses.



Video Transcript here.


And one more video to practise the Present Perfect tense and to revise some other verb tenses.



Video Subtitles and Exercises on the video.

Have you ever... and How long...? / Just, Already and Yet

Have you ever done these things? Complete the questions with the Past Participles of the verbs in brackets and get ready to ask and answer.

How long...?

For and Since vs Ago. Watch the difference!

Have a look at the drawings and write appropriate sentences. Be careful with the word order!!

Irregular verbs list

Click on this link to revise the irregular verbs. You will find the translation into Spanish as well.


You can group these verbs to make learning easier.





Once you are ready, try this game: The Irregular Verb Wheel Game.

Such and So

Learn how to use Such and So to show extremes which lead to a result.

Let, make, want

As we learnt in class, these three pattern verbs are easy to use: "Let someone do something", "Make someone do something" and "Want someone to do something".
However, you may need some more practice "to get the hang of it".

How to Use 'Let' and 'Make'

Let or Make Exercise 1

Let or Make Exercise 2 

Let or Make Exercise 3

How to Use 'Want someone do something'

Want someone to do something Exercise 1 

Want someone to do something Exercise 2

Want someone to do something Exercise 3


Let / Make / Want Exercise

Of course, Ed Sheeran has a great command of these structures. We can see how he makes good use of "let" and "make" in his song Photograph.

Photograph  - Ed Sheeran

Write the opposites of the underlined words

Loving can heal, loving can heal sometimes
But it's the only thing that I know
And when it gets easy
You know it can get easy sometimes
It is the only thing that makes us feel dead

(Chorus)   Fill in the gaps 1

We ........ this love in a photograph
We …….. these memories for ourselves
Where our eyes are never ……..
Hearts are never ……..
And times are forever …….. still

So you can keep ……..

…….. the pocket of your …….. jeans
Holding me …….. till our eyes meet
You won't ever be ……..
Wait for me to …….. home

Write the synonyms for the underlined words

Loving can cure,
Loving can repair your soul
And it’s the only thing that I know know
I swear it will get simpler
Remember that with each part of you
And it's the unique thing

we take with us when we pass away

(Chorus)

Fill in the gaps 2

And if you …….. me
Well, that's ok baby only …….. bleed
Inside these …….. you just hold me
And I won't ever …….. you go
Wait …….. me to come home (x 4)

Cross the odd word out

Oh, you can to fit me
Inside of the necklace you got

When you were sixteen years
Next to your heartbeat in

where I should to be
Keep it deep within in your soul

Fill in the gaps 2

Order the words in the sentences

I’m when away

You will remember I how me kissed

Back on the sixth lamppost under street
you phone whisper through the hearing
me for home wait to come

Full lyrics


You can watch a video with the lyrics in English and Spanish  here.

 

In Rihanna's song Stay, we can listen to the "want someone to do something" and "make someone do something" pattern verbs.

"Stay" – RIHANNA (feat. Mikky Ekko)

Fill in the gaps

[Rihanna:]

All along it was a ……..
A cold …….. hot-headed believer
I …….. my hands in the air, said, "Show me something,"
He said, "If you …….., come a little …….. ."

(Chorus)

Cross the odd word out

Round and around and around and around here we go
Oh now, tell me now, tell me now, tell me now what you know

Not really sure of how to feel about it
Something in the way that you move
Makes me to feel like I can't live without you
It takes me all along the way
I want that you to stay

Write the opposites of the underlined words

[Mikky:]

It's not little of a life you're living
It's not just something you take, it's taken

(Chorus)

Write the synonyms for the underlined words

[Both:]

Ooh, ooh, ooh, the cause I hold on
Ooh, ooh, ooh, 'cause I need this hollow gone
Funny you're the fragmented one

but I'm the only one that needed saving
'Cause when you never see the light it's difficult

to know which one of us is giving in.

Cross the odd word out

[Rihanna:]

Not really sure of how to feel about it
Something in the way that you move
Makes me to feel like I can't live without you
Yeah, it takes me all along the way
I want that you to stay, stay
I want you to stay, oooh. 


Full lyrics

Video with the lyrics in English and Spanish. 

Try

This song is from Caillat's album, "Gypsy Heart." In an interview Caillat said she went into the recording studio with producer Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds and explained to him she was tired of being pressured by others to look like someone she was not. He encouraged her to put those feelings to music.

The song's music video shows a number of women, including Caillat herself, gradually removing their makeup, wigs, and fake eyelashes and letting their natural beauty shine. Caillat said: "We shot the video in reverse, we started bare, and by the end we finished with the full hair and makeup, and then reversed the film for the finished product. All of the women were amazing."

"This song is not to say that we should never wear makeup, but to say that, sometimes, it's okay not to." The song is about not trying to be someone else in order to make others happy. "It's this song I've had in my head my entire life about personal insecurities, imperfections, self-confidence issue," she told Billboard magazine. "I thought I was the only person who felt that way and now I release this song that so many people around the world are relating too, so many different age ranges, men and women. It makes me feel great that I'm not the only one in this situation. For them, hearing a song that speaks to them about something they've gone through, it connects us."





The lyric video features female celebrities like Sheryl Crow, Miranda Lambert, Sara Bareilles, Christina Perri, Hayden Panettiere appearing without makeup, to help prove Caillat's point. "I have a couple celebrity friends that would be more impactful for everyday people to see what we look like normally," said the singer.

Try - Colbie Caillat 

Put your make-up on
Get your nails done
Curl your hair
Run the extra mile
Keep it slim so they like you, do they like you?

Get your sexy on
Don't be shy, girl
Take it off
This is what you want, to belong, so they like you
Do you like you?

You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing

You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
You don't have to try

Mm, mm

Get your shopping on, at the mall, max your credit cards
You don't have to choose, buy it all, so they like you
Do they like you?

Wait a second,
Why, should you care, what they think of you
When you're all alone, by yourself, do you like you?
Do you like you?

You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing

You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to bend until you break
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing

You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try

You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
You don't have to try

Mm, mm

You don't have to try so hard
You don't have to, give it all away
You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up
You don't have to change a single thing

You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try, try, try, try
You don't have to try
You don't have to try

Take your make-up off

Let your hair down
Take a breath
Look into the mirror, at yourself
Don't you like you?
'Cause I like you