Cambridge exams KET-PET Useful Phrases for short notes or informal letters

Cambridge exams

Useful Phrases for short notes or  informal letters

I was very happy to receive your letter/e-mail,message…..

I would like to meet/have lunch/go out/ study……

We could meet/go/ask……

I’m looking forward  to seeing you

Let’s meet at……..

I’m really happy that you’re coming to see me

It’s great that you’re coming to stay with me

I expect to arrive in your city……

I plan to stay for……

I don’t really know what I’d like to do….

I’m so sorry I couldn’t come to your party

I was wondering whether you'd like to come over for dinner one evening                                                

I’m so sorry I won’t be able to come to your party

What about going to the cinema?

Write back and let me know

I would like to have some more information

I tried to phone you but your mobile was off

Please answer this email ASAP (as soon as possible)

What’s happening?

What happened to you?

I don’t think it’s a good idea because

That sounds great…

I’m having a good time/I’m having a fantastic holiday…

I’m sure we’ll have a great time

What about you?

Tomorrow we’re leaving very early for the school trip

The only subjects I’m interested in are….

I can’t stop thinking about my last holiday…..

I’m going to visit your town next….

I have some questions for you

It’ll be nice to see you next month

Next year I am planning to do a one-year course..... 

What’s the swimming pool like?

I think It’s awesome/brilliant, cool, great

It’s horrible, terrible, boring, strange….

Can you meet me at the station….?

Will you meet me…..?

What time shall we meet?

Thanks for asking me to do an English course….

Thanks for asking me to dinner….

I was amazed at the view of…..

I’m taking my friends to London on Saturday to do a bit of sightseeing

If you can’t make Saturday, how about Friday?

We’ll have a nice time together

If you come, we’ll have a lot of fun

i'll look forward to it

I said I'd call you last night and I completely forgot

i suggest meeting at 9.00

i recommend taking the train/ I recommend you take the train

Starting your letter (Paragraph 1)

Thanks for your letter. 
Lovely to hear from you.
How are you? 
 I hope you’re fine
 How are things?  
 Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote 
I  hope you're well.    
Great to hear from you      

                                               

Commenting on something (Paragraph 1)      
 I'm sorry to hear/learn ...                                                                                               

 I'm so pleased to hear ..
It's great to hear ...
What wonderful news about ...    
 Congratulations for your new job ..... 
 I'm writing to complain about.....

Moving the topic on (Paragraph 2)

Anyway, the reason I'm writing ...

I thought I'd write to tell/ask you

Anyway, I was wondering ...

Ending your letter (Paragraph 3)

 Thanks for your help

 Well, that's all for now

 Write back soon
 Looking forward to hearing from you  again  
 We must meet for a chat soon  
Hope to hear from you soon  
Give your father my regards when you see him
 All the best
 Best wishes   
 Kind regards    
See you soon 
Take care  
 Keep in touch
 Yours 
Love 
Lots of love

      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                   

SEE YOU AGAIN song

ActivitY for students in a second class

Listen and Write the missing words

STANDING loved  Long had ride LEAD could KNOW turned hold take established went  flew were gone BEGAN Talking told GOT

SEE YOU AGAIN

 SONGTEXT

It's been a long day without you my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
We've come a _________________(1) way from where we_____________________(2)
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again
Damn, who _____________________(3)?
All the planes we_______________________(4)
Good things we've been through
That I'd be standing right here____________________(5) to you
'Bout another path
I know we _______________ (6)to hit the road and laugh
But something _________________(7)me that it wouldn't last
________________(8) to switch up
Look at things different
See the bigger picture
Those ______________________(9(the days hard work forever pays
Now I see you in a better place
Uh, how ___________________(10)we not talk about family
When family's all that we got?
Everything I _____________________(11)through you were standing there by my side
And now you be gon' with me for the last _______________________(12)
It's been a long day without you my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
We've come a long way from where we began
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again
First you both go out your way
And the vibe is feeling strong
And what's small turn to a friendship
A friendship _______________________ (13)into a bond
And that bond will never be broken
And the love will never get lost
And when brotherhood come first
Then the line will never be crossed
________________(14)it on our own
When that line had to be drawn
And that line is what we reached
So remember me when I'm _________________(15)
How could we not talk about family
When family's all that we _________________(16)?
Everything I went through you were ______________________(17) there by my side
And now you be gon' with me for the last ride
So let the light guide your way, yeah
____________________(18)every memory as you go
And every road you _________________________(19)
Will always________________________(20)you home, home
It's been a long day without you my friend
And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
We've come a long way from where we began
Oh, I'll tell you all about it when I see you again
When I see you again
When I see you again (see you again, yeah)
When I see you again

A Leaflet-writing

A writing activity for students in the first class:

plan a Universal Children's Day event for your school

Design an information leaflet about the event.

 20th November

UNIVERSAL CHILDREN’s DAY

This is a charity day for poor children in the world

to help them and their families.

You can come at 11.30 here at school

We’ll listen to music and play some funny games

You can also buy some objects made by students!

See you soon!

An imaginary interview

Students in the second class have been asked to imagine an interview to a famous person.
Here's one of these "impossible" interviews.
The famous person is the actress Sandra Bullock.

Journalist: Welcome on our channel, Sandra! It's really a pleasure to have you here and I'm glad you're offering us this interview... So, are you ready?

Sandra Bullock: Oh yes, I'm ready to start.

Journalist: Well, there's no  doubt that you're one of the most talented actresses in the world, but in 2010 you were also mentioned as the highest-paid actress in the world and we know you're a great philanthropist, aren't you?

Sandra Bullock: Yes, that's a thing I really care about, because I consider myself very lucky and this is why I love helping the people who need to be helped. I felt deeply honored when I received the Favorite Humanitarian Award, three years ago.

Journalist: About your career, tell us what's the film you remember with  a greater sense of pride? 

Sandra Bullock: The Blind Side. Acting in that film let me mature, it was an extraordinary experience and I can be proud also because I won the Academy Award for Best Actress... An unforgettable emotion!

Journalist: And what about your most popular films? 

Sandra Bullock: I think my funniest film is Miss Detective and it's very popular. Then,some more popular films are Gravity and Our Brand is Crisis. 

Journalist: Yes, I agree with you about Miss Detective; your role made lots of people laugh! Let's continue with your private life... After the divorce with Jesse James in 2010, now you have a relationship with Bryan Randall; finally you can say you're happy, can't you? 

Sandra Bullock: Well, I hope I've found the right person. I would say I'm relaxed now and anyway, I'm always joyful thanks to my children: I've adopted two jewels!

Journalist: That's so sweet! We're happy for you... Thank you so much Sandra! 

The Wife of Bath's tale -summary

Students in the third class have studied The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.
In particular, they've focused on The Wife of Bath. They've read the description made by Chaucer in the General Prologue.
They've also read the tale told by her and they 've been asked to make a summary of it and build up five sentences about the text.
Here's one of the summaries with the questions:

The Wife of Bath’s tale

Questions:

1.   Why does Queen Guinevere punish the knight?

2.   What is the punishment?

3.   According to the hag, what do women most desire?

4.   What does the hag want the knight to do for her?

5.   At the end of the story, why does the hag decide to be both beautiful and faithful?

Summary:

Queen Guinevere punishes a knight for having rapen a maiden. His punishment is to discover what women most desire.

After a year, the knight hasn’t discovered yet what the Queen has asked him. When he goes to the court again, he sees an ugly old hag, who tells him that she will give him the answer if he grants her anything she wants.

The knight agrees. The hag says that women want to have sovereignty over their  husbands. Then, she asks the Queen to force the knight to marry her.

They get married but, on their wedding night, the knight doesn’t want to consummate the marriage because his wife is horrible, old and low-class. Therefore, the hag starts a speech about gentility, poverty and old age.

She offers the knight a choice: either he can have her or he can have a beautiful but not faithful wife. The knight turns the choice over his wife and she decides to be both because he has yielded sovereignty to her. Finally, they live happily together. 

 Here’s another summary

During King Arthur’s age, in a land of fairies and elves, there’s a young knight who one day sees a young woman walking along a river and rapes her.

To punish him, queen Guinevere and her ladies decide to make him find out women’s biggest desire and if he doesn’t, he’ll be beheaded.

So he starts his search: he finds out lots of answers but he can’t find two women who agree.

One year later he goes back to King’s Arthur’s court without an answer, but on his way he meets 24 fairies who are dancing: they disappear all of a sudden, to be replaced by an ugly old woman who accepts to tell him what women most desire, but only on one condition.

He has to promise to please her. He accepts, so the old lady tells him that women want to have control over their husbands.

After that, the hag wants him to fulfil his promise: he has to marry her. But during the wedding night he doesn’t want to go on with her because he thinks she’s ugly, old and poor.

The hag tells him to choose between an ugly but faithful wife and a young but unfaithful one. He asks his wife to make a choice and it means that he accepts to give his wife sovereignty over him.

That’s how he ends up having a beautiful and faithful woman and living with her happily ever after.

QUESTIONS

Which punishment do the Queen and her ladies decide to give the knight?

Who does the knight meet on his way to King’s Arthur’s court?

What is women’s biggest desire?

What does the hag want the knight to do?

What choice does the knight make?

MY LAST HOLIDAY -

MY LAST HOLIDAY

This morning, students in the first class have been asked to create a mind map about their last holiday. This is what they have done.

They’ll write a text about their last holiday (real or imaginary)

WHERE did you go on holiday?

WHEN did you go there?

HOW did you go?

WHO did you go with?

HOW LONG did you stay?

WHERE did you stay?

WHAT did you visit?

WHAT was special about your holiday?

WHAT did you buy?

Did you MEET any new people?

Did you ENJOY it?

Would you like to come back there?

Also, students have been told to use the adjectives in ed and ing they've studied: amazing-amazed, boring-bored, interesting -interested.....

These are two of the writing activities done by students...Both of them are about London

My Last Holiday

Last summer I went to London.

I stayed one week in a big hotel in the centre of London, near the London Eye.

I went there by plane with my father and my mother; my sister was there with her friends.

I saw a lot of things, in particular: the London Eye,the Westminster Palace(with Big Ben), the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London,Buckingam Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral, Hyde Park, Hampton Court (I love it so much!), the British Museum, the National Gallery and also the big Madame Tussaud’s museum (it was interesting, fantastic!).

I enjoyed my holiday; I was really amazed.

Food and people were good and also all  parks in London, they are really big!

On the last day I was in the Hard Rock Cafè and I bought a fantastic gray hoodie and a big Bordeaux T-shirt.

I also bought different postcards and finally the original English tea.

I’d like to come back to London again; in fact this summer I’ll go there with my friends, I’m so excited!

 My Last Holiday

When I was ten I went to London with my family.

I visited a lot of beautiful places, but the most beautiful ones were Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and Big Ben.

We stayed in a hotel for seven days and in our friends’ house for the last three days.

I bought lots of souvenirs, including T-shirts, key rings and bracelets, which I gave as presents to my friends.

I enjoyed my holiday a lot. I hope to go back to London with my friends again.