Past Perfect FCE
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Present perfect FCE
Here I’m leaving some exercises according to your level! Good luck! 🙂
Question tags. They are kind of cool, aren’t they?
We add question tags to the end of statements to turn them into questions. They are used in spoken language, especially when we want to check something is true, or invite people to agree with you.
They are mainly used in speech when we want to:
- confirm that something is true or not, or
- to encourage a reply from the person we are speaking to.
Question tags are formed with the auxiliary or modal verb from the statement and the appropriate subject.
A positive statement is followed by a negative question tag.
- Jack is from Spain, isn’t he?
- Mary can speak English, can’t she?
A negative statement is followed by a positive question tag.
- They aren’t funny, are they?
- He shouldn’t say things like that, should he?
When the verb in the main sentence is in the present simple we form the question tag with do / does.
- You play the guitar, don’t you?
- Alison likes tennis, doesn’t she?
If the verb is in the past simple we use did.
- They went to the cinema, didn’t they?
- She studied in New Zealand, didn’t she?
When the statement contains a word with a negative meaning, the question tag needs to be positive
- He hardly ever speaks, does he?
- They rarely eat in restaurants, do they?
Question Tags Summary Charts
(taken from http://www.grammar.cl/Intermediate/Question_Tags.htm)
Practice
The Passive: have something done (Causative have)
We use a causative verb when we want to talk about something that someone else did for us or for another person. It means that the subject caused the action to happen, but didn’t do it themselves. Maybe they paid, or asked, or persuaded the other person to do it. For example, we can say:
- I cleaned my house. (This means I cleaned it myself).
If I paid someone to clean it, of course I can say:
- A cleaner cleaned my house.
But, another way is to use a causative construction. So I can also say:
- I had my house cleaned.
In a sense, using a causative verb is similar to using a passive. The important thing is that the house is now clean. We don’t focus on who did the cleaning.
Have + object + past participle (have something done)
We usually use ‘have something done’ when we are talking about paying someone to do something for us. It’s often used for services. The form is ‘subject + have + object + past participle’.
- I had my car washed.
- John will have his house painted.
Get + object + past participle (get something done)
We can also use ‘subject + get + object + past participle’. This has the same meaning as ‘have’, but is less formal.
- The students get their essays checked.
- I’ll get my hair cut next week.
- He got his washing machine fixed.
Have someone do something (have + person + infinitive)
We can also use the construction ‘subject + have + person + infinitive’. This has a very similar meaning to ‘have something done’, which we’ve already talked about, but this time we say who did the thing – we talk about the person who we asked to do the thing for us.
- I had the electrician look at my broken light.
- The doctor will have the nurse call the patients.
- The teacher had the students write the answers on the whiteboard.
Get someone to do something (get + person + to + infinitive)
Finally, we can also use the construction ‘get + someone + to + infinitive’. Again, this means that you cause the other person to do the action, maybe by paying them to do it, or by asking them to do it, or by persuading them to do it.
- She gets her son to do his homework by promising him ice cream when he’s finished.
- I got the cleaner to clean under the cupboards.
Sometimes, this construction has the feeling that we needed to convince someone to do something, while the other constructions on this page are neutral.
Practice:
The Passive
When should we use the Passive?
- When we want to change the focus of the sentence:
- The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. (We are more interested in the painting than the artist in this sentence)
- When who or what causes the action is unknown or unimportant or obvious or ‘people in general’:
- He was arrested (obvious agent, the police).
- My bike has been stolen (unknown agent).
- The road is being repaired (unimportant agent).
- The form can be obtained from the post office (people in general).
- In factual or scientific writing:
- The chemical is placed in a test tube and the data entered into the computer.
- In formal writing instead of using someone/ people/ they (these can be used in speaking or informal writing):
- The brochure will be finished next month.
- In order to put the new information at the end of the sentence to improve style:
- Three books are used regularly in the class. The books were written by Dr. Bell. (‘Dr. Bell wrote the books’ sound clumsy)
- When the subject is very long:
- I was surprised by how well the students did in the test. (More natural than: ‘how well the students did in the test surprised me’)
An active sentence like I drank two cups of coffee has the subject first (the person or thing that does the verb), followed by the verb, and finally the object (the person or thing that the action happens to).
So, in this example, the subject is ‘I’, the verb is ‘drank’ and the object is ‘two cups of coffee’.
But, we don’t always need to make sentences this way. We might want to put the object first, or perhaps we don’t want to say who did something. This can happen for lots of reasons (see the explanation further down the page). In this case, we can use a passive, which puts the object first:
- Two cups of coffee were drunk (we can add ‘by me’ if we want, but it isn’t necessary).
How to make the Passive in English
We make the passive by putting the verb ‘to be’ into whatever tense we need and then adding the past participle. For regular verbs, we make the past participle by adding ‘ed’ to the infinitive. So play becomes played. Click here to learn about irregular verbs.
| Tense | Active | Passive |
| present simple | I make a cake. | A cake is made (by me). |
| present continuous | I am making a cake. | A cake is being made (by me). |
| past simple | I made a cake. | A cake was made (by me). |
| past continuous | I was making a cake. | A cake was being made(by me). |
| present perfect | I have made a cake. | A cake has been made (by me). |
| pres. perf. continuous | I have been making a cake. | A cake has been being made (by me). |
| past perfect | I had made a cake. | A cake had been made(by me). |
| future simple | I will make a cake. | A cake will be made (by me). |
| future perfect | I will have madea cake. | A cake will have been made (by me). |
Exercises here:
Exercise 1: Â present simple passiveÂ
Exercise 2: past simpel passive
Exercise 3: present perfect passive
Exercise 4: Future simple passive
Writing essays for IELTS
The process of writing is generally a painful one. Organizing ideas into paragraphs, thinking of the right connectors, coming up with a nice pseudo-original idea on the topic, and so on and so forth.
When it comes to essays, the process becomes a little bit more painful, unfortunately. Still, this type of writing needs to be learned since most pieces of writing that you will produce as a student will be exactly this type: the essay ones. Therefore, here I´m leaving a guidance to give you a hand with this process. Cheer up! Everyone in the end, learned this! 🙂
There are then model answers on the following pages for different types of essay and different questions, with some brief guidance on each.
It is important to analyse model answers for IELTS essays because there are different essay types, and these will require different ways to answer them.
However, as you will see from the guidance on this page, they can all follow the same basic structure.
These are some of the types of IELTS essay we will look at:
- Agree / disagree
- Discuss two opinions
- Advantages & disadvantages
- Causes (reasons) & solutions
- Causes (reasons) & effects
- Problems & solutions
- Compare & contrast
Not every essay will fit one of these patterns, but many do. You may get some of these tasks mixed up. For example, you could be asked to give your opinion on an issue, and then discuss the advantages or disadvantages of it.
The golden rule is to ALWAYS read the question very carefully to see exactly what you are being asked to do.
View this lesson for more practice on analyzing essay questions.
How do I Write an IELTS Essay?
In order to answer this, lets first look at a sample question:
| You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Present a written argument to an educated reader with no specialist knowledge of the following topic.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own experience or knowledge. You should write at least 250 words. |
An IELTS essay is structured like any other essay; you just need to make it shorter. There are three key elements:
- Introduction
- Body Paragraphs
- Conclusion
We will look at each of these in turn, using the essay question above as an example.
1) Introduction
You should keep your introduction for the IELTS essay short. Remember you only have 40 minutes to write the essay, and some of this time needs to be spent planning. Therefore, you need to be able to write your introduction fairly quickly so you can start writing your body paragraphs.
You should do just two things:
- State the topic of the essay, using some basic facts (that you may be able to take from the question)
- Say what you are going to write about
Here is an example introduction for the above essay question about IT:
The last two decades have seen enormous changes in the way people’s lives are affected by IT, with many advances in this field. However, while these technological advances have brought many benefits to the world, it can be argued that these developments in IT will result in more negative impacts than positive.
As you can see, the first sentence makes sure it refers to the topic (IT) and uses facts about IT taken from the question. Note that these are paraphrased – you must not copy from the rubric!
The second part then clearly sets out the what the essay will be about and confirms the writers opinion (some questions may not ask for your opinion, but this one does).
View this lesson for more advice on writing IELTS essay introductions.
2) Body Paragraphs
For an IELTS essay, you should have 2 or 3 body paragraphs – no more, and no less.
For your body paragraph, each paragraph should contain one controlling idea, and have sentences to support this.
Lets look at the first paragraph for the essay about IT. The essay is about the benefits and drawbacks of IT, so these will need to be discussed in separate paragraphs.
Here is the first body paragraph:
To begin, email has made communication, especially abroad, much simpler and faster, resulting in numerous benefits for commerce and business. Furthermore, theWorld Wide Web means that information on every conceivable subject is now available to us. For example, people can access news, medical advice, online education courses and much more via the internet. It is evident that these improvements have made life far easier and more convenient for large numbers of people and will continue to do so for decades to come.
The controlling idea in this first paragraph is the ‘benefits of IT‘, and there are two supporting ideas, which are underlined. No drawbacks are discussed as the paragraph would then lose coherence.
Most of the essay will focus on the negative aspects of IT, as the writer says there are more negative effects in the introduction. So the next two paragraphs are about these.
The topic sentence in the next paragraph therefore tells us we are changing the focus to the negative points:
Nevertheless, the effects of this new technology have not all been beneficial. For example, many people feel that the widespread use of email is destroying traditional forms of communication such as letter writing, telephone and face-to-face conversation. This could result in a decline in people’s basic ability to socialize and interact with each other on a day-to-day basis.
The final body paragraph gives the last negative effect:
In addition, the large size of the Web has meant that it is nearly impossible to regulate and control. This has led to many concerns regarding children accessing unsuitable websites and viruses. Unfortunately, this kind of problem might even get worse in the future at least until more regulated systems are set up.
3) Conclusion
The conclusion only needs to be one or two sentences, and you can do the following:
- Re-state what the essay is about (re-write the last sentence of your introduction in different words)
- Give some thoughts about the future
Here is an example:
In conclusion, developments in IT have brought many benefits, yet I believe developments relating to new technology are likely to produce many negative effects in the future that must be addressed if we are to avoid damaging impacts to individuals and society.
The full IELTS Essay:
The last two decades have seen enormous changes in the way people’s lives are affected by IT, with many advances in this field. However, while these technological advances have brought many benefits to the world, it can be argued that these developments in IT will result in more negative impacts than positive.
To begin, email has made communication, especially abroad, much simpler and faster, resulting in numerous benefits for commerce and business. Furthermore, the World Wide Web means that information on every conceivable subject is now available to us. For example, people can access news, medical advice, online education courses and much more via the internet. It is evident that these improvements have made life far easier and more convenient for large numbers of people and will continue to do so for decades to come.
Nevertheless, the effects of this new technology have not all been beneficial. For example, many people feel that the widespread use of email is destroying traditional forms of communication such as letter writing, telephone and face-to-face conversation. This could result in a decline in people’s basic ability to socialize and interact with each other on a day-to-day basis.
In addition, the large size of the Web has meant that it is nearly impossible to regulate and control. This has led to many concerns regarding children accessing unsuitable websites and viruses. Unfortunately, this kind of problem might even get worse in the future at least until more regulated systems are set up.
In conclusion, developments in IT have brought many benefits, yet I believe developments relating to new technology are likely to produce many negative effects in the future that must be addressed if we are to avoid damaging impacts to individuals and society.
(287 words)
Comments
The IELTS essay introduction talks in general about the increasing use of IT, thus introducing the topic well. The thesis then clearly sets out the writers opinion.
The following paragraph mentions the present benefits of these developments, but the opening sentence in the third paragraph is a qualifying statement (Nevertheless, not all the effects...), so the writer can now focus on the negative elements.
The fourth paragraph provides two other negative examples (lack of regulation, viruses). Both paragraphs suggest that these problems will continue in the future.
The essay concludes with a clear opinion that agrees with the statement.
Overall, it is a well-balanced text that mentions the present situation (…this has made life…) but importantly, also refers to the future of IT (…likely to increase..., might get worse…).
Verbs + ing or to-infinitive
Gerunds and infinitives
It can be a little difficult to know when to use gerunds and infinitives.
We use gerunds (verb + ing):
- After certain verbs – I enjoy singing
- After prepositions – I drank a cup of coffee before leaving
- As the subject or object of a sentence – Swimming is good exercise
We use ‘to’ + infinitive:
- After certain verbs – We decided to leave
- After many adjectives – It’s difficult to get up early
- To show purpose – I came to London to study English
- We use gerunds (verb + ing)
We use the bare infinitive (the infinitive without ‘to’):
- After modal verbs – I can meet you at six o’clock
- After ‘let’, ‘make’ and (sometimes) ‘help’ – The teacher let us leave early
- After some verbs of perception (see, watch, hear, notice, feel, sense) – I watched her walk away
- After expressions with ‘why’ – why go out the night before an exam?
Click for exercises on PDF here
2) Speak
Look at the list of verbs in the presentation and make sentences using a gerund or an infinitive after each verb.
Example – I can’t stand driving in the city.
3)Write some sentences using the verbs above which are true for you.
Example – I detest eating prunes.
I’m just a poor EFL teacher. I can’t afford to buy new shoes.
4)Practise
Here are 5 songs with gerunds and infinitives in the titles.
How many do you know? Can you think of any more songs with a gerund or an infinitive in the title?
I promise to try
I can´t stand losing you
Imagine (having no possessions…)
I want to break free
IELTS Speaking (the 3 parts). Watch these videos!
Watch this real speaking test video. Band 7 You can do it too!! 🙂
IELTS dates
Fechas de Examen 2015
San Isidro, Gran Buenos Aires
International House San Isidro
Belgrano 106, San Isidro
(54 11) 4743 2518 / 4742 9773
ielts@ihsanisidro.com.ar
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Miss Delfi 