Monday, 3d March 2008

Hello!
On Tuesday I’ve attended to second English practice. Because of Erasmus pupils’ arrival the classroom was full. That’s the reason why we have shared computers. The teacher has asked them for their source: the whole have come from Turkey. Immediately afterwards Ana has informed them about what she told us last week. Later we have expounded our oral presentations. The surprise was that only four of all pupils had prepared them! After these presentations, the teacher has valued their effectiveness, our behaviour at the head of expounding, etc. All these things will help us to improve our skills when expounding. That people who hasn’t prepared and, therefore, hasn’t expounded the task will have to do it for the next week.
Next, we have continued with practice 1. One of the exercises dealt with listening the terrible presentation we listened last week and filling the gaps which presented the written presentation. Finally we have done an exercise in which we had to complete some sentences with time expressions according to the verb tense in which sentences’ content were described.

On Wednesday I’ve attended to English class. In the first place we have corrected homework. In this class we have learnt how to use expressions such as for example, which and such as and Gari has asked us for writing a homework related to this topic in the blog. The exercise is this:

Plastics are synthetic materials which can be softened and moulded into useful articles such us plats, car components and medical aids. They have many applications in engineering. There are two types of plastics: thermoplastics, which soften when heated again and again, and thermosetting plastics, which set hard and do not alter if heated again.
ABS is a thermoplastic which is tough and durable. Because it has high impact strength it has applications where sudden loads may occur- for example, it is used for safety helmets.
Nylon is a hard, tough thermoplastic which is self-lubricating. It is used where silent, low-friction operation is required. For instance, it is used for motorized drives in cameras.
Acrylic, which is a clear thermoplastic, can be formed in several ways. It is hard, durable, and has many uses such as aircraft canopies and double glazing.
Polyester resin is a thermosetting plastic used for castings, such as boat and car bodies. It has a number of useful properties. For example, it is hard and has good chemical and heat resistance.

After this, we have done a listening task. It consisted of taking down in a table the name, the properties and uses of some engineering materials such as cast iron, spring steel, mild steel, aluminium,… We have also practised a few of grammar related to comparatives and superlatives.

Finally we have learnt many things about letter writing: presentation and structure, how to write a serious and informal letter. However we have studied in depth the references (your ref/ our ref) and the salutation and complimentary close. In second one there’s a difference between if we know the name of the addressee or not. In the first case the complementary close is yours sincerely and, in the second case it is yours faithfully. The same occurs when salutation depending on addressee’ condition (married or unmarried).

This week I will tell you how the practical and theoretical class has got.
Bye!