Miranda - UK Culture - Date 1/3

The first question is about the characters, and asks the student to match four characters (Benji, Gary, Stevie, and Tilly) with a description of their relationship to Miranda (Miranda's cousin, Miranda's crush, Miranda's friend who manages the shop and Miranda's friend from boarding school).

Then there is a series of multiple choice questions, including the time in the clip where the answer can be found:

What does Miranda’s mum want Miranda to do? (00.10) 
Move out of home/ Get married / Go shopping

What did Miranda “blow her inheritance” on? (00.25) 
A holiday to Malaysia / A restaurant / A joke shop

Why doesn’t Stevie believe Miranda’s excuse for being late to work? (02.00) 
Miranda lives upstairs / Stevie also came to work by train / Miranda drives to work

Why is Stevie upset? (04.30) 
The delivery is wrong / The delivery is late / The delivery hasn’t arrived

What does Miranda say Stevie is too small to do? (04.45) 
Be allowed into Thorpe Park / Ride a bike in the park / Go on all the rides at Thorpe Park

What sport does Miranda say she does? (07.15) 
Swimming / Gymnastics / Running

What news do Miranda’s friends have? (09.25) 
They are pregnant / They are married / They are engaged

I then decide to ask some more detailed questions about their reactions to the clip, which we can then discuss and compare in the class:

What five adjectives would you use to describe... Miranda? Miranda’s mum? Stevie? Tilly? Gary?

What advice would you give to Miranda about Gary?

What (if anything) did you think was funny? Did you enjoy the clip? Why / why not?

Why do you think her show is popular?

Verbs

http://www.eltconcourse.com/documents/ELTConcourseIrregularVerbs.pdf

borrow and lend

If you borrow something from somebody, you take it with their permission and promise to return it in due course, at the end of a limited period usually. If you borrow £5,000 from the bank, youwill owe them £5,000, plus interest on the period of time you have borrowed if for. Consider the following: 'I borrowed five pounds from my brother and forgot to pay it back.' 'I always buy the books I want to read, although I agree it would be cheaper to borrow them from the library.' 'Many of his ideas are borrowed from other sources.'

			If you lend somebody something, or lend something to somebody, then you give them something of yours for a limited period of time. If you lend someone some money, they will owe you the money. Consider the following: 'She lent her sister her car for the weekend.' (NB: verb + indirect object + direct object) 'If you lend your coat to Philip, you’ll never see it again.' (NB: verb + direct object + indirect object) 'If you can lend me a hand with these reports, we might finish them by suppertime.'

omitting 'that'

There are a number of instances in English where it is possible, even desirable, to omit that.

 

that as conjunction with reporting verbs

 

In your first example sentence, that is used as a conjunction, joining two parts of the sentence. After verbs like learned, discovered, found (out), knew, felt, thought, it is quite natural to omit that, especially in informal speech:

 

I discovered Julian had borrowed my car without my permission.

 

I felt he was wrong to do this, but he thought it would be all right.

 

After the more common reporting verbs, (e.g. say, tell) it is also entirely natural to omit that in informal speech:

 

I told him I'd be back by ten o'clock but he said he needed me here by nine.

 

After certain verbs (e.g. replied, shouted) that cannot be omitted and it is not normally dropped after nouns:

 

The Dean of the Humanities Faculty informed the students that the drama dept was going to close.

 

He left a message on my voice mail that he was leaving immediately for Vienna.

 

I replied (to his message) that he should remain in Britain.

 

He shouted at me that he was fed up with living in Britain.

 

omitting that in two-word conjunctions

 

There are a number of two-word conjunctions where that may be omitted. These include so that and now that which we can use to talk aboutpurpose and result and providing that and provided that which we can use to talk about imposing conditions.

 

In a more formal style we may prefer to retain that, but in an informal style it is often omitted. Compare the following:

 

We intend to send her to Brazil so that she can perfect her Portuguese.

 

I spent Easter with Anneke in Switzerland so I could learn to ski.

 

Now that we've joined the EU, prices are sure to rise.

 

Now the exams are over I can lie in bed all morning.

 

Provided that / providing that you sign the contract before we join the EU, you won't have to pay VAT.

 

You can borrow my DVD player, providing / provided you return it on Monday.

 

omitting that as relative pronoun

 

In your second example sentence, Saulo, that is used as a relative pronoun, introducing a relative clause. When that is the object in a relative clause, as in your example, we normally leave it out:

 

The work (that / which) she does for this company is much appreciated.

 

The representatives of the company (that / who) I met in Portugal were very helpful.

 

Note from the above examples that that can be used to refer to boththings and people, whereas which as a relative pronoun can only refer tothings and who can only refer to people.

 

Note also that when the relative pronoun is the subject of a relative clause, it has to be included. It cannot be omitted then:

 

Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands that / which lies to the north east of Mallorca.

 

We have a number of friends who / that have built holiday homes on the island.

-ed endings

t + d = id

sorted

decided

phrasal verbs

Type 1 are intransitive (no object) eg the plane took off

Type 2 are transitive and separable (the pronoun can't come at the end) eg I'll pick the children up after school.

Type 3 are transitive and inseparable (the object is always on the end) eg She takes after her father.

Type 4 are transitive and have two particles. eg I really look up to him.

Plural of nouns

Plural of nouns /s/ /z/ /iz/

Voiced consonant – vocal cords vibrate /z/

Unvoiced consonant – vocal cords don’t vibrate /s/

Rule 1: If the singular form of the noun ends in a voiced consonant, then the plural will have the voiced /z/.  Take ‘BIN’.  The /n/ sound is voiced so BINS has the /z/ ending.  If the noun ends in a vowel sound then it will also take the /z/ ending.  This is because vowel sounds are voiced.  EYE – EYES /z/

Rule 2: If the singular form of the noun ends in an unvoiced consonant, then the plural will have the unvoiced /s/.  BOOK  - the /k/ sound is unvoiced.  So, BOOKS has the /s/ ending.

Rule 3:  If the noun ends in a sibilant then add /iz/ sound.  Sibilant - /s/ /z/ /sh/ /tch/ /dʒ/ /ʒ/ /tʃ/

Voiced consonant + /z/ vowel sound + /z/ - bins, bags, peas, boys

Unvoiced consonant + /s/ books, bats, lights

Sibilant + /iz/ watches, kisses, wishes, messages