A right-looking rabbit or a left-looking duck?
Compound adjectives are a creative part of the English language and help us condense meaning and make clear, beautiful descriptions. There is theory and practice below.
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The following links lead to exercises or tests that can help you revise and test your knowledge of the English language at an intermediate to advanced level (B2-C2). Because of their level, they are appropriate for Greek University Candidates who wish to have an overall evaluation of their competence.
GRAMMAR
Short exercises at edufind.com
READING
Intermediate at web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone
Upper-Intermediate at web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone
Advanced at web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone
Intermediate at usingenglish.com
Intermediate/Advanced at infosquares.com
WRITING
Guide and exercises at owl.english.purdue.edu
FCE/CAE/CPE/TOEFL/IELTS and more…
Tests at boostyourenglishscore.com
Tests at english-online.org.uk
IELTS reading and writing tests at ielts-exam.net (check the writing tasks because there are model answers)
IELTS sample tests at ielts-exam.net (check the writing tasks because there are model answers)
You may also be interested to check the rest of the resources labeled “Exams” and “Ειδικό Μάθημα Αγγλικά” from the unit on the right.
Check yourself on these two Present Tenses with the following interactive presentation. You can click on the slides to see the correct answers.
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Not sure you remember the tenses well? Move on and revise the rules for
1)Present Continuous
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2)Present Simple statements
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3)Present Simple questions and negatives
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Study this presentation to understand
[slideboom id=815149&w=425&h=370]
Stative Verbs List
| like | know | belong |
| love | realise | fit |
| hate | suppose | contain |
| want | mean | consist |
| need | understand | seem |
| prefer | believe | depend |
| agree | remember | matter |
| mind | recognise | see |
| own | appear | look (=seem) |
| sound | taste | smell |
| hear | astonish | deny |
| disagree | please | impress |
| satisfy | promise | surprise |
| doubt | think (=have an opinion) | feel (=have an opinion) |
| wish | imagine | concern |
| dislike | be | have |
| deserve | involve | include |
| lack | measure (=have length etc) | possess |
| owe | weigh (=have weight) |
If you want to try some exercises, click on the icons ♥ ♥ ♥
Sources:
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/stat.htm#top
http://www.eclecticenglish.com/grammar/PresentContinuous1H.html
Play the classic game of Battleship to practice possessive case. You can choose the computer skill level.
In English, we don’t usually place many adjectives before a noun. Two or three adjectives before a noun sounds normal but if we need to use more to describe a noun, we put an extra part (usually a relative clause).
Example:
Our new English teacher is funny and interesting.
Every day our neighbour walks his two black dogs which are noisy, stinky and unfriendly.
However, if we have to use a lot of adjectives before a noun, there is a specific order we must keep for these adjectives. The order is as follows:
)
It was a (Greek/beautiful/rosy/island) sunset.
He was wearing a (straw/beige/summer/Spanish) hat.
I sat on a (cotton/soft/bench/striped) pillow.There are exercises to practice placing adjectives before a noun correctly further down this page.
If you wish to play a jigsaw game on correct adjective order, click on the following picture
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Here’s an excerpt from a well known short story for kids:
The Selfish Giant, Oscar Wilde
“Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant’s garden. It was a large lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars, and there were twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit. The birds sat on the trees and sang so sweetly that the children used to stop their games in order to listen to them. ‘How happy we are here!’ they cried to each other.”
Listen to the rest of this story that speaks of sharing, companionship and selflessness. (scroll down the page a bit to the stream audiobox, choose the story and click on play )
Do you recognize the function of the highlighted syntax?
FUNCTION
We use USED TO to talk about things in the past which we don’t do now or are not happening now and they were past habits or states or repeated actions.
We also use WOULD about situations in the past, which are finished now. However, we use WOULD about actions or situations which happened again and again. WOULD cannot be used about past states.
FORM
(affirmative) subject + used + to + infinitive
(interrogative) did + subject + use + to + infinitive ?
(negative) subject + did + not + use + to + infinitive
PRACTICE
Look at these relevant pages here and here
photo by http://vintageprintable.com , portions of Vintage Printable by Vintage Printable/Swivelchair Media, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
