The past perfect in English.

Buenas tardes, estimados alumnos.

Vamos a trabajar en esta entrada el conocido en inglés como 'pasado perfect o past perfect', verbo que usamos para contar que 'habíamos realizado' una acción en un momento concreto, antes de hacer otra tarea, etc.

👉👉👉  Empezaremos con un video muy sencillo, de los que van al grano y se dejan de zarandajas, que os recomiendo que veáis: pincha en este enlace:

Es fácil: 

'I had eaten my dinner before you phoned me.' (pasado perfecto simple).

'Yo había cenado antes de que me llamaras.'

'I had been eating my dinner when you phoned me.' (pasado perfecto continuo).

'Yo había estado cenando cuando me llamaste.'

'It had been raining all the evening'.

'Estuvo lloviendo toda la tarde.'

✋✋✋ Todas las personas se van a conjugar de la misma manera. Observa:

I had eaten pasta for dinner when you came with the pizza.

You had eaten pasta...

She had eaten pasta...

It had eaten pasta...

We had eaten pasta...

You had eaten pasta...

They had eaten pasta...

👉👉👉 Para poner ese verbo en negativa, basta con poner la palabra 'not' después de 'had' o bien usar la forma contraída 'hadn't'.

I had not eaten pasta for dinner when you came with the pizza.

You hadn't eaten pasta...

She had not eaten pasta...

👉👉👉 Para hacer una pregunta, basta con poner 'had' delante de la persona.

'Had you eaten pasta for dinner?

'Had she eaten pasta...?

✋✋✋ Pincha en este enlace para ver la diferencia entre la forma simple y la forma continua. Por favor, pincha en el enlace, lee la información y completa el ejercicio online que hay al final del texto y que puedes ver aquí:

https://www.superprof.es/apuntes/idiomas/ingles/gramatica-inglesa/verb-tense/past-perfect-simple-and-continuous.html#tema_ejercicios-del-pasado-perfecto-continuo-y-del-pasado-perfecto

El verbo que usamos es muy fácil de conjugar: usamos el verbo auxiliar 'have' en pasado, o sea, 'had' y siempre seguido de un participio, para entendernos, la tercera forma de los verbos irregulares o un verbo acabado en -ed.

'I had already sold my old clothes in Vinted when you asked to buy them'.

'Yo ya había vendido mi ropa vieja en Vinted cuando tú me pediste comprármela'.

'You had payed for the food at the restaurant when I wanted to invite you'.

'Tú habías pagado la comida del restaurante cuando yo quería invitarte'.

✊✊✊✊✊ Past perfect passive: pasado perfecto pasivo, más fácil todavía:

'I had been told to be punctual for the meeting'

'Me dijeron que fuera puntual para la reunión'

'You had been asked to do the entrance exam'.

'Te pidieron que hicieras el examen de acceso'.

'She had been given a new laptop for her new job'

'Le dieron un nuevo portátil en su nuevo trabajo'.

'He had been sold a broken car'.

'Le vendieron un coche averiado.'

'We had been requested to pay more taxes'.

'Nos pidieron que pagáramos más impuestos'.

'You had been ordered to leave your job and look for another one'.

'Se te ordenó dejar tu trabajo y que te buscaras uno nuevo'.

'They had been presented with a new computer for their birthday'.

'Les regalaron un nuevo ordenador por su cumpleaños'.

Y ahora, a practicar estos ejercicios:

nº 1: enlace.

nº 2: enlace.

nº 3: enlace.

nº 4: enlace.

nº 5: enlace.

Feliz año nuevo.

Reading comprehension: Novak Djokovic wins case against Australia over canceled visa.

Buenas tardes, estimados alumnos.

Comenzamos el III Año de la Era Covid con el virus Omicron ligando con su primo Delta y pariendo el flurona. Solo esas palabras demuestran que algo huele a chamusquina.

The Washington Post

Retomamos con energía y ganas el curso comenzando hoy el 2º trimestre de vuestros cursos, algunos con los exámenes en abril y otros en junio. Pero recuerden, tempus fugit.

Y, de nuevo, vamos con noticias de actualidad: la opereta bufa entre el tenista Novak Djokovic y el gobierno australiano, que ocupa los titulares de todos los medios de comunicación. Me pregunto si este es el principal problema de nuestra sociedad, con flurona paseándose por Las Ramblas como si nada. 

Bueno, al tajo que es noche.

CÓDIGOS DE COLORES:

AZUL: Traducciones.

ROJO: Aspectos gramaticales.

VERDE: Aspectos culturales.

NARANJA: Estructuras concatenadas

MORADO: Traducción y sinónimos, antónimos, etc.

Amarillo: Palabras con trampa.

Os dejo una plantilla para que, sobre la marcha, podáis ir completando con sinónimos, antónimos, etc y los significados. Espero que os sea de utilidad. Pinchad aquí para descargarla.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic will be allowed to remain in Australia, clearing the way for him to compete in the Australian Open after a judge on Monday overturned a decision to cancel the tennis star’s visa.

The decision, by Federal Circuit Court Judge Anthony Kelly, ended a five-day standoff between the world’s top-ranked men’s player and Australian officials that had become an international spectacle. It gives the Serbian star a shot at breaking the record for men’s Grand Slam singles titles at the Melbourne tournament.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles-espanol/shot?q=+shot

As the judge ordered Djokovic released from a quarantine hotel for undocumented immigrants, however, attorneys representing the Australian government warned that the immigration minister was considering whether to re-cancel Djokovic’s visa, threatening a new showdown. Soon, crowds gathered in downtown Melbourne, chanting, “Novak, Novak!” and “Free Nole!” as dusk fell.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles-espanol/whether

The judge’s ruling initially unleashed a wave of celebration among Djokovic’s supporters, scores of whom gathered in Melbourne’s Federation Square to dance and sing.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles-espanol/as

But as false rumors began to circulate that Djokovic had been detained again — something the government threatened to do Monday — the celebration turned to anger.

Pulsa aquí para ver una explicación sobre el uso del PAST PERFECT (HAD BEEN)

https://english.lingolia.com/es/gramatica/tiempos-verbales/past-perfect-simple

Several hundred Djokovic supporters, shouting “Free Novak,” marched to the skyscraper where the tennis star had been brought earlier in the day to watch the online proceedings with his attorneys.

When a car with tinted windows emerged from the parking garage, Djokovic supporters surrounded it and began to boo, curse and block the road. When the protesters got too close to the police officers ringing the car, the police began deploying pepper spray.

Djokovic supporters reacted angrily, screaming obscenities. At least one unmasked man spit on officers, while several threw plastic water bottles, hitting at least two officers, one in the head. An officer who was pepper-sprayed in the chaos fell to the sidewalk as a colleague helped him wash out his eyes. A Djokovic supporter and his daughter were also pepper-sprayed, with the family washing their eyes out with milk.

“It’s crazy,” said the girl’s mother. “There were kids as young as 5.”

Police officers said they did not know whether Djokovic was in the car.

‘Novak Djokovic is not a criminal’: Serbia and Australia trade volleys as tennis star remains held in hotel

Djokovic’s attorneys had presented a forceful case Monday against Australia’s treatment of the tennis star, at times appearing to draw agreement from the judge. But the government argued it had the right to turn away anyone who poses a potential health risk.

Djokovic, 34, had been held in Melbourne’s Park Hotel since Thursday after his visa was canceled upon his arrival in the country Wednesday night, when authorities rejected his request for an exemption from Australia’s requirement that visitors be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Djokovic appealed the decision, setting up Monday’s legal contest.

Pincha aquí para saber más sobre el subjuntivo en inglés.

https://www.britishcouncil.es/blog/subjuntivo-ingles

“I’m pleased and grateful that the Judge overturned my visa cancellation,” Djokovic wrote on Twitter, adding that he wanted to remain in the country and play at the Australian Open.

“I remain focused on that,” he wrote. “I flew here to play at one of the most important events we have in front of the amazing fans.”

The high-profile case captured headlines by pitting the steely Serb against Australia’s strict pandemic protocols. Djokovic’s family denounced his treatment, and Serbian and Australian officials traded criticism. The case transformed the unvaccinated sports star — a skeptic of coronavirus vaccines — into a lightning rod for the global vaccination debate.

In a news conference in Serbia, Djokovic’s parents thanked supporters and described their son’s ordeal but abruptly stopped taking questions when asked about his recent covid infection.

“There was a time when he didn’t have a telephone on him and we didn’t know what was 

,” said his mother, Dijana. “We didn’t know if he was okay, if he was sick … As a mother that was [difficult].”

Feliz Año Nuevo.

Text nº 13 for translation: A global food crisis could be approaching. 15 de diciembre de 2021.

Buenas tardes, estimada familia IPEP #inglésipep #ingléspagsypau (en Twitter).

Vamos otra semana más, con otro texto con el que vais a reciclar vocabulario ya trabajado, además de ser de los temas habituales en las pruebas: medioambientales, cuidado de la naturaleza y similares.

De nuevo, es un texto extraído de un artículo del periódico The Washington Post, y que podéis leer entero para aprender más vocabulario aquí.

The Washington Post. Democracy dies in Darkness

Amid drought, conflict and rocketing prices, a global food crisis could be approaching, top expert warns.

You’re reading an excerpt from the Today’s WorldView newsletter.

Global food prices are soaring. Fertilizer costs are sky-high. In Afghanistan, nearly 23 million people — more than half the population — are expected to facepotentially life-threatening food insecurity this winter. Madagascar is confronting its worst drought in 40 years, with more than a million people there in need in urgent food aid.

Is a new global food crisis coming?

In an interview this week, Maximo Torero Cullen — chief economist at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization — told me the answer is: Not yet, but we could be on the brink. The world is witnessing an increase in localized and conflict-driven food crises, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. But across the globe, the food price surges of recent months are still not as bad as the two critical spikes sparked by weather, biofuel production and surging Asian demand in 2007-2008 and 2011-2012.

That doesn’t mean we won’t get there. Because of the pandemic, global hunger shot up by an estimated 118 million people worldwide in 2020, jumping to 768 million people, the most since as far back as 2006. The number of people living with food insecurity — or those forced to compromise on food quantity or quality — surged by 318 million, to 2.38 billion.

As vaccination rollouts lag in the developing world, Cullen told Today’s WorldView that he fears the slower economic recoveries in low- and medium-income nations could worsen the food insecurity picture further in 2022.

How did the pandemic change the nature of global food insecurity, and how is the problem evolving?

The major drivers before covid-19 were conflict, and climate and economic downturns. Lockdowns and covid-19 have exacerbated those problems.

But what is new are two things: One is the significant recovery plans and inflation we are seeing as the U.S., China and other countries create excess demand, which has affected, of course, prices because of their demand for commodities. The competition for containers has exacerbated the situation, making transportation costs higher.

The other element is fertilizer prices and scarcities. Countries like Bolivia that used to export to Peru, for instance, are exporting much, much less. An incredible shrinkage. Russia has put some export limits on fertilizers. China produces one-quarter of the fertilizers in the world, but now they are also importing. So the pressure on that sector is a different than we’ve faced before.

By Anthony Faiola

Reading comprehension: Virus.

Buenas tardes, estimados alumnos.

Esta semana vamos a aprender y repasar vocabulario sobre el puñetero Covid, puesto que es normal que en los exámenes se usen textos y temas de actualidad. 

Boris Johnson reports U.K.’s first known death from the omicron coronavirus variant.

You can read the whole article by clicking here.

LONDON — At least one person has died from of the omicron variant, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday as he urged Britons to quickly increase their protection with a booster shot. It was the first reported fatality in the country from the variant.

Johnson, who was speaking to reporters during a visit to a vaccination clinic in West London, said that the omicron variant “was producing hospitalizations, and sadly at least one patient has been confirmed to have died with omicron.”

“I think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that’s something we need to set on one side and just recognize the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population,” he said.

The prime minister’s office did not immediately offer any further details about the victim.

Officials in England and Scotland say omicron cases appear to be doubling every two to three days and is spreading faster than it has in South Africa.

On Sunday, Britain reported 1,239 new cases of the omicron variant, a near-doubling of the 633 cases confirmed on Saturday. There are now a total of 3,137 confirmed cases of the variant in the country. Scientists suspect there are in reality 10,000s of new infections.

The Washington Post. Democracy dies in Darkness.

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, said Friday that the omicron variant will overtake the common delta strain “within days, not weeks.”

Omicron could become dominant in some European countries by next week, officials predict

The prime minister said, “the best thing we can do is all get our boosters.” Johnson made the comments as Britons stood in long lines outside clinics on Monday, waiting to get their third dose of vaccination.

Others who tried to book appointments via the National Health Service website were told to try again later. Some people said that the NHS website had crashed.

On Sunday evening, Johnson announced in a televised address that Britain would try to get booster shots to everyone age 18 and over by New Year’s Day, bringing forward an earlier deadline by a month.

“A tidal wave of omicron is coming,” Johnson said. “And I’m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need.”

To reach that target, the NHS will need to carry out about a million vaccinations a day, double what it is doing now.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid warned Monday that omicron infections were doubling at “phenomenal” rate.

“We’re once again in a race between the vaccine and the virus,” Javid told Sky News. “Two doses are not enough, but three doses still provide excellent protection against symptomatic infection.”

The good news: the health services agency said preliminary studies found that third, booster jab of Pfizer would likely raise protection from omicron considerably — to 70 to 80 percent range.

Teresa Lambe, a co-author of the study and a professor at the Jenner Institute at University of Oxford, said neutralizing antibodies might not tell the whole story and that other immune responses against omicron may be stimulated by the vaccines.

Lambe said that early studies by others also suggested that a booster dose of existing vaccines may be effective against omicron.

She urged people to get a booster and said, “I am carefully optimistic,” but that is currently sensible to “prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.”

Lambe and other scientists said it is a numbers game: if there are suddenly, quickly millions of new omicron infections in Britain, even if the variant is not more deadly, the large number new cases will send a lot of people to the hospital, where some will die.

Saludos.

Grammar test online: relative clauses in English

Buenas tardes, estimados alumnos.

Foto de @mmolpor Casa en Budapest hoy en día.

Vamos con otro test, a ver qué tal van esos conocimientos de gramática inglesa. Y también, de asuntos internacionales, como la crisis en la frontera de Polonia y Bielorrusia que está jugando con la vida de miles de inmigrantes

Gracias a Anne Applebaum, cuyo artículo 'A Dictator Is Exploiting These Human Beings' he usado como base para coger las frases. Dos pájaros de un tiro.

Test online: Making suggestions in English

 Buenas tardes, estimados alumnos.

"Shall we change our tickets then?", asks Victoria.

Foto de Wikepedia

Texto cogido de CREA, TEMA 1, PAU.

Nota sobre gramática: En la última frase, con forma interrogativa, tenemos al falsa pregunta 'Shall we...?' que hemos traducido como '¿Qué te parece si cambiamos los billetes?, por lo que en realidad es una sugerencia.

Ve este vídeo breve -le puedes poner subtítulos en español- para aprender cómo se pueden hacer las sugerencias en inglés:

Aquí tenéis un resumen en inglés y en español de las expresiones más comunes que podemos usar:

@mmolpor

Y ahora, un pequeño test online: 

Reading comprehension: What will the weather be like?

Buenas tardes, estimados alumnos.

Foto de @mmolpor Caminos de Segovia.

CÓDIGOS DE COLORES:

AZUL: Traducciones.

ROJO: Aspectos gramaticales.

VERDE: Aspectos culturales.

NARANJA: Estructuras concatenadas

MORADO: Traducción y sinónimos, antónimos, etc.

Amarillo: Palabras con trampa.

Os dejo una plantilla para que, sobre la marcha, podáis ir completando con sinónimos, antónimos, etc y los significados. Espero que os sea de utilidad. Pinchad aquí para descargarla.

WHAT WILL THE WEATHER BE LIKE?

Michael and Victoria live in Australia and are planning a trip to the United States. They are flying to Miami, New York and Alaska and they don't know what the weather is going to be like.

Victoria looks at the weather channel on the Internet. She finds out that in New York it will be partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers. The high will be around 80F with East Northeast winds of 15 to 25 mph. 

"I find that the temperature is surprisingly high for this time of the year in New York", Victoria says to Michael.

"For Miami I suppose we'll have to pack our bathing suits", Michael adds.

"It seems like we aren't going to be very lucky. The weather forecast for Miami is as follows" says Victoria "Sunny with cloudy intervals. High of 57F. Winds South, 5 to 10 mph."

"What? Only 57F? That's very low. I can't believe it. That temperature can't be right for Miami. Besides it's going to be windy."

"Yeah" agreed Victoria. "It seems like we'll have to take our bathing suits for New York instead of for Miami. And, remember, later we'll go to Juneau, Alaska." 

"Yes, that's going to be very cold. Right?", asks Michael.

Foto de Wikipedia

"Let me see. I will check it on the weather channel again. It says: Juneau, Alaska. Overcast with rain showers at times. Temperatures in the mid to upper 30s. Winds East Southeast, 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%."

"Brrr...that's going to be very cold. I think I'd rather go to the Caribbean. I want to enjoy a hot climate, sunny skies and no thunderstorms."

"There are also thunderstorms in the Caribbean", says Victoria.

"Yes, I know, but that's only from May to June and September to October."

"Shall we change our tickets then?", asks Victoria.

Foto de Wikepedia

Texto cogido de CREA, TEMA 1, PAU.

Vocabulario básico: puedes descargarlo aquí.

@mmolpor

Reading comprehension: Underbrush and pine trees are a problem.

 Buenas tardes, estimados alumnos.

Foto de @mmolpor Caminos de Segovia.

Underbrush and pine trees are a problem

The mountain town of Canton is at an elevation of 6,000 feet, the highest in the area. It is surrounded by thick underbrush and pine trees. Because of six years of drought, these plants are a major fire hazard. Thousands of trees and tons of underbrush are going to be removed over the next five years at a minimum cost of $3 million. The brush is going to be removed first, then the trees are going to be cut down and removed. A cleared nonflammable area will then safely surround the town of 4,000.

Residents look forward to the work, because it will help their town survive a future forest fire. "But there are two problems," said one resident. "All the extra trucks are going to make traffic pretty bad. Once the area is cleared, we have to make sure dirt bikers don't try to make the cleared area their personal playground."

A recent fire burned 4,000 acres and destroyed 11 homes in nearby Hamilton. The fire was raging toward Canton, but a sudden rainstorm put it out. Residents know that they won't get lucky twice, so they are hoping this massive clearing operation will avoid a worse result in the future.

Ninety percent of the cutting and clearing are going to be paid for with federal funds . Unfortunately, if the trees are on private property, they must be paid for by the residents themselves. Prices can range as high as $1,000 to cut down and remove one tree. Officials say that residents can apply for state and federal loans if necessary. 

"Well, what good does that do me?" asked Thelma, a 65-year-old widow. "I'm living on social security. I've got four trees on my property. The government's not going to loan me money when they know there's no way I can pay it back. So what am I supposed to do? These planners with all their big ideas ought to think of the little people."

Texto cogido de CREA, unidad 1, PAU.

Saludos.