Speakout Advanced p 21. Wishes and Regrets. Speaking

A. Have a natural conversation with your partner
1. Talk about the pictures relating them to the topic.

2. Work out who might have expressed the following wishes and regrets:

• I wish I hadn’t cut my ear off.
• I regret having cheated on my wife at the White House.
• I'd rather have married Camilla instead.
• If I hadn’t invaded Russia...
• I shouldn't have eaten that apple.
• If only I hadn’t gone to Dallas.
• I would have preferred not to have spent 27 years in a South-African prison.
• I would have loved to have seen that iceberg.
• I would have liked not to have married Prince Charles.
• I'd sooner not have flown so close to the sun.
• I wish I hadn’t held the Spanish Parliament at gunpoint on 23 February 1981.
• I would have preferred not to give the order to drop the Atomic bomb over Hiroshima.
• I'd rather not have sent the Armada to Britain.

3. Talk about:

• A famous singer you wish you had seen in concert.
• A foreign language you would like to be able to speak apart from English.
• Something you would rather a member of your family didn't do.
• A very expensive possession you would love to have.
• A quality you would rather have.
• A famous person you wish you could meet.
• A sport you would like to be very good at.
• An aspect of your personality you'd sooner change.
• Something you'd rather people in Spain didn't do?
• Something you regret having bought.
• The number of brothers or sisters you'd sooner have had.
• When you would have liked to have been born.
• A country you wish you had been born and bred in.
• The mistakes you made when you were young that you shouldn't have made.
• The regrets people have when they get old 
• Your own regrets

B. Monologue
Student A 
1. Something you would love the Town Council to do to improve your town.
2. Something you'd sooner it had never been discovered or invented. Why?
3. Something you wish you had learnt to do but still can’t do.
 
Student B   
1. Something you regret having done this month.  
2. What do you wish Spanish television programmes were like?
3. What would you love to say to an important person in politics.

 

 

On June 24, 1812, the Grande Armée, led by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, crossed the Neman River, invading Russia from present-day Poland. ... The Grande Armée also failed to prepare for Russia's harsh winter. Its troops were not dressed or trained for the kind of weather they faced.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza.

 

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, most of them isolated on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa.

 

The "ranks" that make up the ship's team include:

• Master
• Chief Mate (also called Chief Officer)
• Second Mate (also called Second Officer)
• Third Mate (also called Third Officer)
• Deck Cadet
• Chief Engineer
• Second Engineer
• Third Engineer
• Fourth Engineer
• Engine Cadet
• Electrician
• Boatswain (also called Bosun /Deck Foreman)
• Pump Man
• Able-Bodied Seaman (AB) (also called Quartermaster),
• Ordinary Seaman(OS)
• Fitter
• Oiler
• Wiper (also called Motorman)
• Chief Cook and Steward

In Greek mythology, Icarus /ˈɪkərəs/ was the son of the master craftsman (Sp. maestro artesano) Daedalus /ˈdiːdələs/ /ˈdedələs/, the creator of the Labyrinth. Icarus and Daedalus attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that Daedalus constructed from feathers and wax. Daedalus warns Icarus first of complacency and then of hubris, instructing him to fly neither too low nor too high, lest (+present subjunctive. For fear that. Sp. no sea que) the sea's dampness clog (block) his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignores Daedalus’s instructions not to fly too close to the sun. The wax in Icarus’s wings melts. He tumbles out of the sky, falls into the sea, and drowns. Thus sparking the idiom, "don't fly too close to the sun". 

President Truman decided to drop an atomic bomb on Japan on August 6, 1945. It was his hope that the power of the bomb and the damage it would cause might be enough for the Japanese to stop fighting and surrender. So, an atomic bomb named “Little Boy” was dropped on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. It killed about 80,000 people when it blew up.

 

When the Japanese didn’t surrender after the “Little Boy” bomb destroyed Hiroshima, President Truman ordered that a second atomic bomb, called “Fat Man”, be dropped on another city in Japan. 

 

The Spanish Armada was one part of a planned invasion of England by King Philip II of Spain. Launched in August 1588, 'la felicisima armada', or 'the most fortunate fleet', was made up of roughly 150 ships and 18,000 men.