Javier’s English Corner

We have a long, long weekend ahead of us and since I know you enjoy me posting songs on this site, here goes another one. It is called Mad World. The original version was written and sung by 80s band Tears for Fears, but it was made really popular when American singer-songwriter Gary Jules recorded it together with friend Michael Andrews for the movie Donnie Darko. This song became the UK Christmas Number One single of 2003 and since then it has been used on popular American TV shows, and most recently in the commercial for the Xbox 360 game Gears of War (From Wikipedia).

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Up to now, I have not mentioned National Geographic Magazine as an interesting and useful resource for all of you advanced students out there. Its on-line version offers a plethora (I couldn’t resist the temptation of using this trendy word) of features which can help you improve your listening comprehension skills and also your vocabulary.

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This week we have been reviewing the so-called narrative tenses, that is, those tenses we use to tell a story or an event which took place in the past. Used to is one of them. You are going to watch a video in which some people talk about things they used to do in the past, but which they hardly do or don’t do at all now. Can you complete the sentences below about all the people in the video?

1. Elizabeth used to …………………………………..
2. Pamela’s dad used to …………………………………..
3. Andrew used to …………………………………..
4. Billie used to …………………………………..
5. Courtney used to …………………………………..
6. Jennifer used to …………………………………..
7. Ingrid used to …………………………………..
8. Karina used to …………………………………..
9. Richard used to …………………………………..
10. Mike used to …………………………………..
11. Neil used to …………………………………..
12. Sue used to …………………………………..
13. Robin used not to ………………………………….., but now she does.
14. Rebecca used to …………………………………..
15. Mia used to …………………………………..
16. Patricia used to …………………………………..