Daily practice using Flo-Joe

Remember to practise your vocabulary every day by going to the Flo-Joe website and clicking on the FCE Word Bank section.

This will help you to learn and retain vocabulary in its different forms and applications, and to prepare for your exam.

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/index.htm

Modal Verbs

Go to the link below to practise using modal verbs by completing the sentences with one of the verbs in the drop-down menu for each sentence.

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-modals.php

Reported Speech

Here are a couple of quick online exercises on reported speech for you to practise.

http://www.autoenglish.org/generalgrammar/reportedspeech.htm

http://www.autoenglish.org/FCEUse/ReportedSpeechTransformations.htm

Focus on Prepositions in use

Have a go at practising these preposition exercises from the Auto English website.
There are three exercises linked below. Just click on the links to go to the web page.

http://www.autoenglish.org/prepositions/gr.atin.i.htm

http://www.autoenglish.org/gr.in-on.htm

http://www.autoenglish.org/mistakes/mis-preps.i.htm

How to use Reported Speech

1. The introductory sentence

If you use Reported Speech there are mostly two main differences.

The introductory sentence in Reported Speech can be in the Present or in the Past.

If the introductory sentences is in the Simple Present, there is no backshift of tenses.

Direct Speech:

• Susan: “Mary works in an office.”

Reported Speech:

• Introductory sentence in the Simple Present → Susan says (that)* Mary works in an office.
• Introductory sentence in the Simple Past → Susan said (that)* Mary worked in an office.

2. Change of persons/pronouns

If there is a pronoun in Direct Speech, it has possibly to be changed in Reported Speech, depending on the siutation.

• Direct Speech → Susan: “I work in an office.”
• Reported Speech → Susan said (that)* she worked in an office.

Here I is changed to she.

3. Backshift of tenses

If there is backshift of tenses in Reported Speech, the tenses are shifted the following way.

• Direct Speech → Peter: “I work in the garden.”
• Reported Speech → Peter said (that)* he worked in the garden.

4. Conversion of expressions of time and place

If there is an expression of time/place in the sentence, it may be changed, depending on the situation.

• Direct Speech → Peter: “I worked in the garden yesterday.”
• Reported Speech → Peter said (that) he had worked in the garden the day before.

IH Brisbane FCE International Lunch

Thanks to all of you for organising such a brilliant lunch last Friday.
There was everything from Okonomiyaki to Coxinha, and a soft drink which tastes oddly like bacon!