Article Practice

Complete the sentences with a or an, the or no article.

1 'How much are ......... beans?' 'They're 80 cents ......... pound.'
2 I went to ......... wonderful concert by ......... London Symphony Orchestra.
3 ......... local school is going to be closed soon.
4 I usually go to work by ......... train.
5 Is ......... meat in ......... oven?
6 Is this ......... first time you've been to ......... Isle of Man?
7 He's ......... art teacher and she's ......... electrician.
8 A lot of people give ......... money to charity at this time of year.
9 What ......... beautiful face that child's got!
10 ......... British usually have butter on their bread.
11 Life is very difficult for ......... unemployed these days.
12 ......... leader of ......... opposition is in danger of losing her seat at ......... next election.
13 I like to have ......... cup of tea when I wake up in ......... morning.
14 I saw ......... fox this morning. I think it must have been ......... same one that I saw last week.
15 Can I have ......... apple?
16 Have you ever seen ......... Acropolis in Athens?
17 ......... police have had a lot of support from ......... general public over this issue.
18 ......... shirts on ......... washing-line should be nearly dry now.
19 ......... people don't like him because of his selfish attitude.
20 I bought my sister ......... book and bottle of perfume for her birthday but I don't think she liked ......... perfume.




Try to complete all of the following questions. I will be posting the answers later.


Answers

1.) the, a
2.) a, the
3.) a
4.)
5.) the, the
6.) the, the
7.) an, an
8.)
9.) a
10.) the
11.) the
12.) the, the, the
13.) a, the
14.) a, the
15.) an
16.) the
17.) the, the
18.) the, the
19.)
20.) a, the




Good luck with your studies,
ESL Study Guide

Verb Tense practice

Complete the following sentences. Use yesterday, last, tomorrow, or next.

1. I went swimming ______ morning.
2. Ken is going to go to the beach ______ morning.
3. I'm going to take a trip ______ week.
4. Alice went to Miami ______ week for a short vacation.
5. We had a test in class ______ afternoon.
6. ______ afternoon we're going to go on a picnic.
7. My sister is going to arrive ______ Tuesday.
8. Sam bought a used car ______ Friday.
9. My brother is going to enter university ______ fall.
10. ______ spring I took a trip to San Francisco.
11. Ann is going to fly to London ______ month.
12. I'm going to study at the library ______ night.
13. ______ night I watched TV.
14. ______ evening I'm going to go to a baseball game.
15. Matt was at the laundromat ______ evening.



See if you can complete all 15 sentences. I will post the answers tomorrow.


Good luck with your studies,
ESL Study Guide



Answers
1. yesterday
2. tomorrow
3. next
4. last
5. yesterday
6. Tomorrow
7. next
8. last
9. next
10. Last
11. next
12. tomorrow
13. Last
14. Tomorrow
15. yesterday

Possessive adjectives

Pronouns each have a possessive adjective:


I —> my
we —> our
you —> your
you —> your
he —> his
they -> their
she —> her
it —> its

Comparative Forms

Complete the following sentences using the words in brackets.

1 It's _____________ here than in London. (hot)
2 She's _____________ her brother. (imaginative)
3 He's _____________ all the other students. (old)
4 Do you think Pat is _____________ Brian? (intelligent)
5 This school is _____________ ours. (old-fashioned)
6 The computer was _____________ I thought. (expensive)
7 The rooms are _____________ they used to be. (clean)
8 He's _____________ he was a year ago. (healthy)
9 Do you think English is _____________ French. (difficult)
10 He eats a lot - he's getting _____________ before. (fat)


Answers

1 hotter
2 more imaginative than
3 older than
4 more intelligent than
5 more old-fashioned than
6 more expensive than
7 cleaner than
8 healthier than
9 more difficult than
10 fatter than

Using Pronouns Correctly

Only two parts of speech, nouns and pronouns, have case. This means that they change form depending on how they are used in a sentence. English has three cases: nominative, objective, and possessive.


Nominative case
- the pronoun is used as a subject.

example:
I threw the ball.


Objective case
- the pronoun is used as an object.

example:
Give the ball to me.


Possessive case
- the pronoun is used to show ownership.

example:
The ball is mine.



Nominative Objective Possessive
(Pronoun as subject) (Pronoun as object) (Ownership)
I me my, mine
you you your, yours
he him his
she her her, hers
it it its
we us our, ours
they them their, theirs
who whom whose
whoever whomever whoever

Subscribing to the idiom of the day

You can check out the new RSS feed for the idiom of the day by adding it to your RSS reader. Just add:

http://www.eslstudyguide.com/feed.xml


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ESL Study Guide

Sending an email

One of the easiest ways to practice English is with a penpal via email. But what about the format of a message? What if you want to send an email message to a company? How should you write it?

If you are familiar with the person you are writing to you are able to get away with being informal. On the other hand, if you do not know the person you need to be more formal. Take a look at the following sample email.


Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 12:33:24 –0500
From: Sara Chang
To: All Employees
Subject: New phone installations this weekend


**ATTENTION**

We will be getting a new phone system installed in the office on Saturday, October 29. To help with the installation, you are asked to do the following things by
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, at 5 PM.

1. Please remove all your belongings and papers from your desk.

2. Please be sure to delete all of your voice mail messages from the system.

If you have any questions or need help complying with these requests, please
call me at extension 555. Thanks for your cooperation!

Sara
Sara Chang
Ext. 555
schang@company.com

the use of details

Consider the following response:



summer vacation is wonderful holiday to techers.

first, we can go traveling abroad to seesight seeing. when we go to other country, we'll learn more things than we learned in Korea using text books.

Second, we will take a rest to be refresh in order to work again with a new energy.

Third, we have our own time to enjoy my dream. sometimes we can meet my friends without having any barriers.

finally, summer vacation is perfect season for my leisure time



At first glance, it may seem poor, but this is not the case. The structure is clearly defined, and while using very little detail, what is given is fairly clear and to the point. This is something that will lead to a higher overall TOEFL iBT score. Clear writing means you will be understood.

What can we do to improve it?

1.) expand on the details
- remember: TOEFL iBT independent essays should be around 300 words.

2.) how can I expand on the details?
- we can go traveling abroad to seesight seeing.
- what can you see?
- here is somewhere you can talk about the interesting things you could see in the foreign
country you chose to visit.

- Second, we will take a rest to be refresh in order to work again with a new energy.
- How are you going to be refreshed?
- here is where you can talk about relieving stress
- people will be able to get there mind off of their work
- what could happen if we did not refresh ourselves and just worked nonstop?

- Third, we have our own time to enjoy my dream. sometimes we can meet my friends without having
any barriers.
- What is your dream/hobbies?
- why can you not normally do this?
- what barriers are you referring to?
- different time schedules?
- how often do you normally get to see your friends?


By expanding on the initial response this way, our TOEFL iBT writing score will be significantly higher.



Good luck with your studies,
ESL Study Guide