Category Archives: Lessons

Lessons – blog of CISL

Lesson of the Month: December 2012

DID YOU KNOW: WORD BORROWING English has borrowed a lot of words from different languages, and sometimes from languages you might not expect! What languages do you think the following come from? 1. ALCATRAZ (The island prison off the coast of … Continue reading

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Lesson of the Month: November 2011

USE OF THE PASSIVE Most of you have found yourselves studying the Passive at one time or another in your CISL classes. Like many other concepts, how you construct it is not as confusing as why or when you should … Continue reading

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Lesson of the Month – August : Find the Errors!

GRAMMAR: In each of the following sentences, there is ONE error. Find it and fix it! 1. The streets are icy, so walk slowly and no fall down! 2. Turn left at the next corner and you don’t forget to … Continue reading

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Lesson of the Month – July 2011: Making Suggestions

GRAMMAR: MAKING SUGGESTIONS with WHY DON’T, LET’S and HOW ABOUT Here are 3 different ways of making suggestions or invitations. The grammar is a little different in each one, so watch the verb! Why don’t we go to that new … Continue reading

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Lesson of the Month – June 2011: DOMAINS

VOCABULARY: BE THE MASTER OF YOUR DOMAIN! One of the most interesting ways to learn vocabulary is by DOMAIN- a group of different words that are associated with the same concept. The words last month were all in the WALK … Continue reading

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Lesson of the Month – May 2011: Useful Idiomatic Expressions

VOCABULARY: IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS This month we have five pairs of idiomatic expressions – and, to make it interesting, they are pairs of opposites: 1. MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT = Very often, frequently. My sister complains that her husband talks about … Continue reading

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April 2011 – Lesson of the Month : What do apostrophes (‘) do?

GRAMMAR: What do apostrophes (‘) do? Apostrophes have two main jobs in English: They help nouns show possession or ownership, for example John’s car or my sister’s home. Apostrophes have been doing this job for more than 300 years and … Continue reading

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March 2011 – Lesson of the Month : Food for Thought

1.  VOCABULARY: FOOD FOR THOUGHT “Food for thought” is an expression that means something is very interesting.  There are a lot of expressions using food words.  Here are a few: like two peas in a pod = almost identical, the … Continue reading

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CISL LESSON OF THE MONTH: June 2010

GRAMMAR: POSSIBILITY AND SUGGESTIONS: MAY and SHOULD in Present and Past MAY is used to express POSSIBILITY; SHOULD is used for SUGGESTIONS and recommendations. Both can be used to refer to the present/future and to the past, although the form … Continue reading

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CISL LESSON OF THE MONTH: APRIL 2010

Astrology and Psychology “Scorpio:  You shouldn’t waste your time worrying – today is a new day!  Some new financial opportunities should come your way this week, so you must get organized.  You ought not to make any big new purchases … Continue reading

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