Opportunities to Learn

Put the words in the correct order:

a and create dough eggs flour Mix the to together.
a battery cellphone doesn’t few find hours I last more my than!
cook dishes I has My partner to the wash whenever.
after dictionary I in kids looked looking my some the up while words.
an ball big, in red the There’s ugly, yard.

We use either of these expressions to express the idea that we are preparing something that will be the base of what is to come later.

Lay the groundwork comes from construction, when a foundation must be laid before a building can be built.

Sowing the seeds comes from agriculture, referring to when the seeds are placed in the ground so they can grow and then be harvested later.

Remember, these phrasal verbs are not “take + particle” but rather units, so learn them as such!

Put these verbs in the correct sentence, conjugated as necessary. You may want to look these words up in a dictionary, as they may have secondary meanings! (Just like in that sentence: “look up” isn’t just “turn your eyes to the sky”, it’s also “find information in a reference book”!)

Choose the correct alternative.

Beverly, would you like any/some coffee or tea?
Nate always has anything/something to say, whether it’s useful or not.
Yolanda didn’t want any/some dessert, but I did!
Call me sometime/anytime you need help.
Will there by anything/something else for you today?

Choose the modal verbs that are correct. There may be more than one!

There was a knock at the door. Theresa looked at me and announced, “That (1) may / might / must be George. He called earlier and said he (2) ‘d / ‘ll / ‘s drop by about this time”. I looked at how I was dressed: singlet, boxers with little hearts on them, and an open robe, and told her, “You (3) could / might / would have warned me! I look horrible!”

Put the Mark Twain quotes in the correct order.

A can’t advantage read has no one over person read who won’t who.
If tell the you truth, anything don’t have to remember you.
A. easiest in is Giving the smoking the thing up world.
B. because done I I’ve it know of thousands times.
Apparently, cannot happen is nothing that there today.

Some basic questions Spanish speakers may ask can cause occasional problems in English because English only has one word, to be, where Spanish has two, ser and estar.

First, we know that “¿Cómo está él?” is “How is he?”, as we learned it in the first weeks of class.

But then we have the question “¿Cómo es él?” Our first reaction is to translate literally, but there we have a problem…

Choose the correct tense from the choices.

Ursula: 1) Have you heard/Did you hear the latest news about our boss?

Frank: No! Tell me everything!

Ursula: Well, it seems that the police 2) have pulled him over/pulled him over last night because he 3) used to drive/was driving erratically.

Read the following monologues. Then, report what was said below, using the verbs given. Keep in mind, these words were said one week ago!

Adele: “I had gone to the shop to buy just one dress, but this jacket was irresistible!”
Brian: “I’ve never enjoyed reading, but that book was excellent!”
Connie: “If I ever see Henry again, I don’t know what I’d do.”
David: “Marina told me she saw Tyler yesterday at the mall with Vinnie.”

Fill in the spaces with the appropriate preposition: in, at, on, to.

I went 1)___ the movie theatre last night because I wanted to see the new Star Trek movie. When I arrived 2)___ the box office*, the line was out the door: apparently, I wasn’t the only one. So I waited 3)___ the line for ten minutes. When I finally got to the window, the sales clerk told me that there was only one seat left: 4)___ the first row, 5)___ the far right of the room. I was desperate, so I took it, even though I knew it wouldn’t be a fun experience.