Advanced Use of English Part 1

Practice your CAE grammar here.

BEGIN here

A message from Torrie

A quote - just for fun....


Never try to teach a pig to sing....it wastes

your time and annoys the pig.

                                                            Anonymous



Dear English Learners,   It is my passion to help you to communicate in English.  I would like you to take a moment to think about what helps you to learn better.            Write me a post.  Your feedback is really important to me.  Don't worry, you can remain anonymous!

Only in Canada!

Canadians have no fear of the cold.
And if they want to find fish- they find fish! Too funny!

Watch this video
http://youtu.be/eQs4O0hOgAo

Let's rap the year 2012 into history!

The Year in Rap, from Flocabulary.

Say farewell to a busy news year by first watching the Flocabulary video (and, perhaps, reading over the full lyrics), then taking our news quiz, which offers a Times take on the same stories.
You can fill in the blanks with your own guesses, or choose, below, from a scrambled list of words that were removed.

Here is the link:
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/current-events/


special thanks to the New York Times Learning Network

Modal Verb Review and Practice

CAN

1. It is used to express the ability to do something.

I can swim very well.

Can he can speak English fluently? - No, he can't.

We cannot sing at all!

2. It expresses the possibility to do something.

We can go to the seaside at last. Our holidays start next week.

3. We use it to say that something is probable.

It can be John. He has blond hair and he is wearing glasses.

4. It expresses the permission to do something.

Why not? You can marry her. She is a nice girl.

MAY

1. It is used for permissions.
You may borrow my car. I won't need it.
May I smoke here? - No, you can't, I'm sorry.

2. It is used to express probability or prediction.
They may call tomorrow. I hope so.

The main difference between may and can is in style. May is more formal than can. Can is typical of spoken English.

3. The opposite of may is must not or may not.

May I smoke here?

- You mustn't smoke here. (strong prohibition)
- You may not smoke here. (more polite, very formal)
- You can't smoke here. (informal spoken English)


MUST

1. It is used for strong obligations. It is personal, because it expresses the speaker's opinion or will.

I must clean my teeth. I want to be healthy.

You must go there. And do it right now!

2. It means a strong recommendation.

You must see it. It's the best film I've ever seen.

3. We use it to show the certainty of the speaker.

They must be at school by now. It's already 9 o'clock.

4. The opposite of must is need not.
Mum, must I wash up? - No, you needn't. I've already done it.

Must not has a different meaning. It is used to express prohibition that involves the speaker's will.

We mustn't come late today. Or the teacher will be very angry.

He mustn't enter this room. It is dangerous.


Now it's PRACTICE TIME
CLICK HERE

Artist Bio - Roman Signer

Boot Fountain in Solothurn
Der Tisch in Appenzell

Born in Appenzell, Switzerland, Signer started his career as an artist later in life at the age of 28, after working as an architect’s draughtsman, a radio engineer apprentice, and a short stint in a pressure cooker factory. He holds degrees from arts institutions in Switzerland and Poland. He studied at the Schule für Gestaltung in Zurich and Lucerne between 1966 and 1971. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland from 1971-1972.

Signer's work has grown out of, and has affinities with both land art and performance art, but they are not typically representative of either category.^[1] It is often being described as following the tradition of the Swiss engineer-artist, such as Jean Tinguely and Peter Fischli & David Weiss

 

continue reading HERE

 

 

thank you Wikipedia

Water...

...is a precious resource.

                                                          

Watch the video, then read and do the exercises.

Begin here



Thank you Bouabdellah

Land Art

What's That?

Land art or Earth art is an art movement which emerged in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which landscape and the work of art are linked. It is also an art form that is created in nature, using natural materials such as Soil, Rock, boulders, stones, organic media (logs, branches, leaves, and water with introduced materials such as concrete, metal, asphalt, mineral pigments. Sculptures are not placed in the landscape, rather, the landscape is the means of their creation. Often earth moving equipment is involved.

His purpose is to produce plastic emotions in the spectator who faces a landscape. The fundamental beginning of the Land Art is to alter, with an artistic sense, the landscape, to produce the maximum of effects and sensations to the observer.

It Tries to reflect the relation between the man and the land, the environment and the world, expressing at the same time the pain, for the environmental deterioration of the climate that exists nowadays. The principal thing is the interstirrup-strap of the man - artist with the environment.
-In fact, one of the major distinctions between Land Art and most of the art one sees in the museum is that Land Art is designed to evolve, change, and eventually decay. Some works of art are quite ephemeral, persisting only for a few hours or days, while others are deliberately exposed to erosion and wind so that they become distorted over time.

Reading Task B1

Hi People,

The holidays are over and it is time to begin studying more.
Here are some reading exercises.


Click to begin

Happy New Year!!

Have a little fun with your New Year's Resolution.

Wishing you all the best for a healthy and happy 2013. 
Kindly, Torrie

Watch this video and have fun.

sarcastic

noun

Amusing New Year Quotes
Some slightly sarcastic, these quotes poke fun at us as people.

• "People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas." ~Author Unknown
• "Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits." ~Author Unknown
• "It wouldn't be New Year's if I didn't have regrets." ~William Thomas
• "Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to." ~Bill Vaughan
• "Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go." ~Brooks Atkinson
• "An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves." ~Bill Vaughan

For the German translation click here