Survival!!!

Week 13^th – 15^th April

Hello everybody! How’s it going?

What did we do last week?

We started talking about how technology has changed…or not….?

Why did we start talking about this? I have no idea. I know that we started discussing a topic and we ended up (end up: have as a result) talking about something completely different from what we had started talking about! But, we know that every topic it was brought in (introduced) in our discussion, is related to the initial statement.

I sometimes think that technology is going backwards (to the past, previous stage) instead of forwards (future) and I feel that nothing new is created. Remember the 80s or 90s? We already had these cameras that developed (produced) the photos immediately! It’s true that the cameras were really big and expensive. And the quality wasn’t that great! But…they had already been invented!!!

We carried on (continued) with conditional clauses.

We did an oral exercise so as to practise the real conditional, which refers to a real situation or a fact.

We learnt that:

·         If a waiter forgets to put some expensive drinks onDani’s bill, he reminds him / her to add them to the bill. (Or at least, that’s what he told us! And we trust (confide) him! He looks like (seems to be) an honest guy)

·         If Mónica hits another car when she’s parking and the damage is rather big (considerable), she leaves a note. (Quite honest, too. Same asDani)

·         If people push into a queue in front ofMónica, she sends them to the back of the queue.(Sensible behaviour! People should learn to wait their turn!)

·         If a friend asks Dani to borrow some money to buy a lottery ticket, he lends him/her the money with her. (That’s a right thing to do! You never know where luck lies!)

Real situation: If + present------------------------  present (Zero Conditional)

So, we began the class ending the sentences starting with the first conditional:

If you are single (not married) and you meet somebody you really like…

…you’ll become friends / you’ll fall in love with him /he’ll be married

(as you can see, we have a bit of everything! Optimistic, pessimistic and realistic opinions!)

If you arrive early to catch a plane, it’ll be delay / the flight will be cancelled / you’ll get bored at the airport…

If you get to work late, your boss will be at work / you’ll have an unexpected meeting / you’ll be fired (lose your job) …

And so on…(etc.)

We continued practising the first conditional. This time with Murphy’s law.

Murphy’s Law says, ‘if something bad can happen, it will happen’. Murphy was a captain and an American engineer from the 1940s. He was investigating why planes crashed and he got a reputation for always thinking of the worst thing that could happen in every situation.

And we found out (discovered) why the Italian man that met an American on the train didn’t want to lend him his newspaper. It’s quite simple, ‘If I lend you my newspaper, I’ll kill you!’

Finally, we did a quiz to show if we could survive animals attack!

 I’m afraid, Dani wouldn’t go through(survive) if he were attacked by different animals!

Anyway, despite the results of the test, I seriously doubt any of us could survive a crocodile, bear or even bull attack.

 This was the perfect way to introduce the unreal,( second) conditional.

 Unreal or imaginary situation.

If a bear attacked you, would you climb up a tree?

What would you do if you were in the country and a bull came towards you?

Unreal situation: If + past simple ------------------ would / wouldn’t + infinitive

                                                                                (present conditional)

And that was all, folks!!!

 See you tomorrow! Monday 20^th April