Unit 6B: Reported Speech

All you need to know about the REPORTED SPEECH

When we report what another person has said, we usually do not use the speaker’s exact words (direct speech), but reported speech or indirect speech.
Therefore, you need to learn how to transform direct speech into reported speech. The structure is a little different depending on whether you want to transform a statement, question or request.


In the following videos, you will find all the necessary explanation to understand this structure.




















If you need to put into practice what has been explained to you in the videos, don't miss the following exercises

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3



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Unit 6A : caught in the act (crime vocabulary)

Crime Vocabulary

1. bullying : bullying - to hurt or frighten someone who is smaller or less powerful than you, often forcing them to do something they do not want to do.

2. burglar - burglary : burglar - a person who illegally enters buildings and steals things

3. drug dealer : a person who trades in selling drugs

4. drink driving : driving a vehicle after drinking too much alcohol

5. fine (noun) : fine (noun) an amount of money that has to be paid as a punishment for not obeying a rule or law

6. gang - gangster : gang - a group of young people, especially young men, who spend time together, often fighting with other groups and behaving badly a group of criminals who work together

7. graffiti : words or drawings, especially humorous, rude or political, on walls, doors, etc. in public places

8. hooligan - hooliganism : hooligan - a person who acts in a violent way without thinking and causes damage

9. judge : judge a person who is in charge of a trial in a court and decides how a person who is guilty of a crime should be punished, or who makes decisions on legal matters

10. to rob – robbery - robbers : to rob – to take money or property illegally from a place, organization or person, often using violence the crime of stealing from somewhere or someone someone who steals by using a weapon

11. shoplifting : the illegal act of taking goods from a shop without paying for them

12. speeding : driving faster than it is allowed in a particular area

13. theft : dishonestly taking something which belongs to someone else and keeping it

14. violence : actions or words which are intended to hurt people



Now, put these vocabulary into practice. Fill in the gaps with the following words.


bullies, burglar, dealers, drink driving, fine, gangs, graffiti, hooligans, judge, robbers, shoplifting, speeding, theft, violence :


1.A ____ broke into our house while we were away this weekend and stole our video.

2.Drug ____ who sell heroin to teenagers are among the worst kind of criminals.

3. Car ____in this area is increasing. Fifty cars were stolen last week.


4. Fourteen football ____were arrested after the match. They were fighting and throwing bottles onto the pitch.

5. He should have taken a taxi home after the party. He got stopped by the police and lost his licence for ____. He was doing 80 kilometres an hour in the centre of town. He was caught ____on a camera.

6. He's scared to walk home from school on his own because last week some ____ in the year above him broke his personal stereo.

7. If you park on a double yellow line, you might get a parking ____.

8. In court, the ____said he should stay in prison for the rest of his life.

9. She was arrested for ____. She stole a pair of jeans and a sweater from a clothes shop.

10. Some people think that the ____on TV and in films leads to crime.

11. The health centre wall has some big red ____ on it. They'll have to repaint the wall.

12. Two armed bank ____ got away with £50,000 yesterday. Two guys ____a friend of mine recently and ran off with her handbag.



Try the following quiz about crime vocabulary, click
here






Let's study the gerund and infitive forms

Watch this video and listen to someone explaining the verbs that are followed by both forms, gerund and infinitive.






For more information about Gerund and Infinitive, visit the following tutorial part 1 and part 2.

Let's practice the gerund and infinitive forms with the following exercises

Exercise 1
Exercise 2

Exercise 3
(basic level)
Exercise 4 ( " " )

Exercise 5 (intermediate level)
Exercise 6 ( " " " )



Listen to a podcast
that talks about a controversial murder in the UK, click here to be able to listen and read the script at the same .
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Unit 5C: It's all in the mind (relative clauses revision)

Let's have a look at some expressions with the word mind

1. make up your mind = (decide)

2. change your mind = (change your decision /opinion)

3. have something on your mind = (be worried about something)

4. out of sight, out of mind = (if you don't see somebody for a while, you often forget about them)



A BBC video about some paranormal phenomena





Let's practice the relative clauses.
Exercise 1 (join two sentences using a relative pronoun)

Exercise 2

Exercise 3 (quiz on that, which and who)

Exercise 4

Exercise 5

For further written information about relative clauses, click here


Maybe the following video will help you understand how relative clauses work if it's still not clear enough.




Let's watch the following video, where a business situation is provided to explain the defining relative clauses





Let's practice the listening with the following exercise.


Listening 1 (John and Sue talk about UFOs and whether or not they believe in them)



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Unit 5B: Can you remember? (quantifiers revision)

ARE YOU GOOD AT REMEMBERING?

Most of us express dissatisfaction with our memory, especially when we want to recall some detail and we can't. Some examples are, an address or a telephone number, the time of a meeting, somebody's name, etc. Even people who I think have an excellent memory, complain that they forget things.
Memory works like a bank. You can get to it, only if you put it there. If you didn't deposit it, you can't collect it when you needCursiva it.

A lot of people insist, "My memory is terrible, or "I can't remember anything." In most of the cases, their memory is fine. The power to remember is certainly there. They just need to take the time to learn ways to "register" the events more clearly, so they can 'recall" them more successfully, later


Do you agree with these statements? Does this happen to you quite frequently?











A good video that can help you improve your memory.



Look at what Dr Angela Chang says about our memory: "You WERE NOT born with a poor memory. Remembering is a process that must be learned, just like walking, talking, eating, telling colors apart, distinguishing sounds, and telling time. You learned these when you were a child, and now you can perform them without effort, without being conscious of the mental processes involved. You can learn the process of using your memory just as thoroughly, and when you do you will have in your power a hundred times the knowledge and experience you actually put to use now. Anyone can do it."


A video that shows you the basics to improve your memory.






Let's practice the quantifiers. Take the following exercises and check how good you are in the issue.

Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5 (gap filling text)
Exercise 6 (very long test; try only the first 30 questions)
Exercise 7



Let's practise the word formation with the following exercises.

Word formation 1 (forming adjectives and adverbs)
Word formation 2 (forming verbs)
Word formation 3 (forming the opposite)
Word formation 4
Word formation 5 (from BBC learning English webpage)
Word formation 6 (a text)


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