WEEK 8

1. Clauses (SEMANA 8)
What is a Clause ?
A Clause is a group of words that forms a sentence or part of a longer
sentence and has a subject and a predicate of its own.
• That is the boy who took my book.
The above sentence can be divided into two parts:
(i) ‘That is the boy’ [It has a subject and a predicate]
(ii) ‘who took my book’ [It has a subject and a predicate too]
Since each sentence has a subject and a predicate, therefore,
each is called a clause.
Types of Clauses :
Main Clause – Main Clause does not depend on any other clause for its
meaning. Subordinate or Dependent Clause – Subordinate Clause
depends on the main clause to add more information to the main clause.
• He goes/when I come.
In the above example, ‘He goes’ is the Main Clause and ‘when I come’
is the Subordinate Clause.
There are three kinds of Subordinate Clauses. They are described
below:
Noun Clauses- A Noun Clause does the work of a Noun.
(i) The Subject of a Verb:
a. The story was true. (Noun)
b. What he said /was true. (Noun Clause)
(ii) The Object of a Verb:
a. He tells a story. (Noun)
b. He tells/that he will not go. (Noun Clause)
(iii) The Object of a Preposition:
a. Pay attention to my story. (Noun)
b. Pay attention to/what I say. (Noun Clause)
(iv) Object of a Verb of Incomplete Predication.
a. My brother is a singer. (Noun)
b. My belief is/that he will pass. (Noun Clause)
 Adjective Clauses- An Adjective Clause does the work of an Adjective.
(i)
a. He is a lazy boy. (Adjective)
b. He is a boy/who is lazy. (Adjective Clause)
(ii)
a. It is a beautiful place for the tourists. (Adjective)
b. It is a place/where tourists come for the scenic
beauty. (Adjective Clause)
Adverb Clauses- An Adverb Clause does the work of an Adverb.
(i)
a. He came yesterday. (Adverb)
b. He came/when it was raining. (Adverb Clause)
(ii)
a. Stand there. (Adverb)
b. Stand/where the table is. (Adverb Clause)

APPEARANCE
Clothing
• Clothes and fashion
• Which are the best known brands of clothing in your country?
• How are tattoos and piercings regarded?
• Are there certain jobs in which having tattoos or piercings is frowned
upon?
• Do you wear hats in winter?
• How do teenagers dress?

Recycled clothes
Nowadays, a simple piece of clothing can have more lives than a cat. Like the
increasingly widespread practice of making clothes from recycled materials,
enthusiasm for reusing trousers, shirts and jackets is alive and well thanks to
a combination of various environmental, economic and fashion-related
factors. Second-hand shops (establishments with a long-standing tradition
in the UK and the USA, where there is now even a specific word, thrifting, for
rummaging through charity shops) have been invaded by trendy people.
More and more Facebook and Twitter users sell their used t-shirts by posting
photos of them on their accounts. Meanwhile, designers such as Gary Harvey
are calling for “an ethical fashion revolution”, involving clothes made using
tins, plastic and cardboard. Statistics such as that of middle class women in
the USA using just a quarter of the clothes in their wardrobe persist, but
there can be no doubt that sustainability has made its presence felt in the
fashion sector and many people are once again finding forgotten gems
among their grandmother’s garments.

Groups of young people

• Do you think there are urban tribes in your country?
• If so, could you name any of them?
• Are there places where they meet up?
• Are there people who dress like manga characters? Are there manga
fairs?
• Do you have a particular name for people who are very keen on IT, like
the characters from Big Bang Theory, for example?

Shops
• Are there second-hand markets in your country?
• Do people tend to haggle or is there no budging on price?
• Do sales take place at a specific time of year?
• Are people in the habit of buying from shopping centres?
• Is there a particular day of the week that people tend to devote to
shopping?

Urban tribes
Metalheads, punks, Goths, preps, emos, hippies, hipsters, skins and mods
are all examples of groups of young people whose behavioural patterns and
aesthetic styles set them aside from the mainstream. Such groups have been
anthropologically and sociologically important since the middle of the last
century, and have been known as urban tribes since 1990, on the basis of
Michel Maffesoli’s book The Time of the Tribes. Decades after the height of
the beatnik and hippie movements, and iconic films such as West Side Story
and Quadrophenia, video games and the emergence of social networks have
brought about a subculture revival. In addition to the aforementioned tribes,
there are now pokemones (a subculture that surfaced in Latin America,
involving a positive, complex-free outlook on life), floggers (devotees of
online meeting places such as Fotolog) and frikis (new technology addicts).
They are all part of youngsters’ constant search for lost identity.
WEEK 9
2. Phrase (SEMANA 9)
A group of words that makes sense, but not complete sense is called a
Phrase.
o Sophia studies at night.
o She is a girl of great promise.
Kinds of Phrases
Noun Phrases- A phrase that does the work of a noun is called a Noun
Phrase.
o They want to see you.
o Her presence encourages us.
Adjective Phrases- A phrase that does the work of an adjective is called
an Adjective Phrase.
o He is a boy of pious nature.
o My uncle was a writer of great fame.
Adverb Phrases- These are phrases that do the work of an Adverb. They
usually answer the questions ‘How?’ ‘Where?’ and ‘When?’
o She sang in a sweet manner.
o The bell will ring just now.
Preposition Phrases- These are phrases that are used with the force of
Preposition.
According to, in front of, in spite of, on account of, because of, by means
of, by way of, in case of, in front of, in spite of, on account of, owing to,
with reference to, with regard to.
o In case of need come to me.
o Owing to his illness, he could not come.

FILM AND THE ARTS

Culture - Cinema
• How much does a ticket for the cinema cost?
• Is there a particular day of the week on which ticket prices are reduced?
• Is it possible to watch original versions of films with subtitles?
 • What about films dubbed into your language?
• What is your favourite film?

Original version with subtitles

Is it preferable for films to be subtitled or dubbed? Some find reading a
superimposed text on the screen distracting. Others say that dubbing is
disrespectful to actors’ work. With the emergence of sound films in the
1920s and 1930s (when, it is worth remembering, thousands of people were
still unable to read in certain countries), every country chose one option or
the other. Ever since, subtitled original versions of films have prevailed in
Europe, although dubbing is the norm in Italy, Germany and Spain, countries
that were looking to emphasise their identity back in what was a time of
national assertion. A substantial proportion of the 30,000 people employed
in Spain’s dubbing industry work in Catalonia. However, the fact that the
countries whose inhabitants boast the greatest foreign language skills
(Denmark, Finland, Holland, Norway and Sweden) are those that opted for
subtitling has prompted countries that habitually dub films to adopt various
measures for promoting original versions with subtitles in cinemas and on
television, with a view to nurturing plurilingualism.

Books
• Who are your country’s best known writers at present?
• Has anyone from your country received a Nobel Prize in Literature?
• Is there a particular poem that you had to memorise at school?
• Are e-books widely used?
• How much does a book generally cost?

Music
• Which are the most famous groups in your country?
• Does your country have, or has it had, internationally famous singers?
• Are there any major music festivals?
• At what time are concerts usually held?
• What languages do groups from your country sing in?
Music’s social value

History has proven that music can influence humans biologically,

physiologically, psychologically, intellectually, spiritually and, of course,
socially. Ever since ancient Greek times, when it was already assumed that
music could both cultivate social harmony and incite acts of aggression and
disorder, music has been a crucial factor in the development of personal and
collective identities. Executions such as those of the Chilean singer-
songwriter Victor Jara (carried out by the Pinochet dictatorship in 1973) and
the composer and labour activist Joe Hill (ordered by a Utah court in 1915)
show that the powers that be have never underestimated songs’ potential
to bring about change. Today, the social responsibility that the most famous
and, thus, most influential musicians ought to display is the subject of fierce
debate.