Collocate dictionary

Here you can find an online collocate dictionary.  There you have the option of comparing collocations in Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), Corpus of Historical American English (COHA), Time Magazine Corpus (TIME), British National Corpus (BNC) and Google.

Mandatory, obligatory and compulsory

These words can indeed be used as synonyms in most contexts.  I also like the first response in the forum at the following link:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080507075259AAR2USG

Here is a link for another forum which can be useful, as well:
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2902/mandatory-obligatory-compulsory

Germany's success

Here is an article that can be summarised with your reflections.

Hans Rosling on global population growth

Here is the link for the presentation we watched together.  You can listen to it at your convenience as you take notes for a summary report if you could not do this exercise in the first part of the course.

Streams and texts for summary reports

As we discussed, I am hereby making two streams and two articles for you to watch and listen to respectively for a summary report followed by your reflections, which you may leave out if you want to.  This, of course, is an optional exercise; you can choose the one(s) you like the best if you do not have the time to do all of them.  You can send me your summary reports at your convenience before our next session on Monday, 21st of November.

Here are the two talks:
Charles Leadbeater on innovation
Yochai Benkler on the new open-source economics

Here are the two articles:
Globalization's Missing Middle
The Impact of Globalization on Income and Employment

Reported speech

I am hereby providing some documents on reported speech as well as object and subject questions with the key for the exercises from English Grammar in Use: Intermediate by Raymond Murphy.  More  exercises on reported speech along with the key are also made available.

Here you can also find more information on subject, object, verb, tense, time and location modifications in reported speech and indirect speech. (Business Grammar Builder by Paul Emmerson)

Subjunctive

A webpage on the use of subjunctive is hereby made available.

The dont's for PowerPoint

Here you can find Don McMillan's standup on the dont's of a PowerPoint presentation.

More tips on PowerPoint presentations

Here you can find list of do's and dont's for PowerPoint presentations.

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint

Here you can find Guy Kawasaki's recommendations on the length (10 slides), duration (20 minutes) and font size (30 points) in a PowerPoint presentation.

Here you can find a stream of his pitch. ('Bozo' means 'fool'.)

Lists of three and the rule of 3s: two speeches

Here you can find the first part of Steve Jobs's iPhone product launch speech.

Here you can find Barack Obama's inauguration speech.

In both of them, please pay attention to the usage of the lists of three and the rule of 3.

Here is a stream where the rule of 3s is explained among other useful tips on making presentations.

Sample summary text with reflections

Return to Maasticht 

Maastricht is on the border between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. It gave birth to the euro, and the city gave its name to the European treaty that was negotiated 20 years ago. However, the Netherlands will not celebrate this anniversary, even though there are some signatures of well-known politician’s on the walls of a famous wine-cellar in this city.

During the euro crisis the Netherlands asked for tougher measures and rigid fiscal rules. The immigration minister has been tightening the immigration policy even for EU citizens. The Dutch are sceptical against certain new Member States’ joining the EU’s Schengen passport-free travel zone. This is because there is a huge support for anti-immigration parties, and the Prime Minister has to work with these parties to form a government.

It is incomprehensible that Wilders’s party topped the polls in Maastricht, given that the city is popular with cross-border shoppers and short-break holiday-makers, and half of the university students speak English.

Nevertheless, one can argue that this party is not anti-immigration, but rather anti-Islam. People are afraid of Muslim extremists. They believe that you should not bite the hand that feeds you; as a guest you have to respect the rules of the place you want to live in. Moreover, since 9/11 people have become more afraid of the possibility of such an event also occurring in their cities. They just ask themselves when there will be another terrorist attack.

At the moment the institution of “Europe” is not working efficiently, as the ordinary people consider European Parlementarians to be part of a grabbing-culture. Europe is time-wasting and unjust, even though the euro is one of the best things that has ever happened for Europe.

=====================

Here is the text summarised.

Gerund vs. Infinitive

Numerous exercises on gerund vs. infinitive along with their key are hereby made available for you to have access at your convenience.  You can also find the list of verbs used with gerund and/or infinitive here.

Here you can find more information and exercises on the same topic.

Articles

Here you can find the document on articles along with the key for the exercises.

Cambridge Dictionary

Here you can have access to the online Cambridge Dictionary, in which you can listen to the British and American pronunciation of words.

Modal verbs

Here you can find some information and exercises on modal verbs along with the key for the exercises. (Source: English Grammar in Use. Intermediate by Raymond Murphy)

Here you can find more exercises on modal verbs.

Four sources for audio and video streams

Here you can have access to the NPR of the NYC region.  It could be useful if you want to improve your listening comprehension of American English.  You can listen to the live FM broadcast or go their show archives.  I personally like Radiolab, Selected Shorts and Fresh Air among the shows they air.

Here you can have access to the BBC website, which also airs on the WNYC in the mornings Brussels time.  It could be useful to improve your listening comprehension of British English.  They also have links under "Learning English", where you can find numerous tools for learners of English as a second language.

Here you can have access to the audio and video streams on The Economist website.  This again is a good source for improving British English listening comprehension.

Here you can have access to TED which is a good source for numerous talks on a very wide range of topics.  Most talks are given by Americans and Canadians, but there are also other speakers of different nationalities, including some British.

Make, do, get and have

Here you can find some information and exercises on the use of the verbs 'make', 'do', 'get' and 'have'.

Conversation Exchange

Here you can have access to the Conversation Exchange website.

Relative, -ed and -ing clauses

Here you can find some exercises on relative, -ed and -ing clauses along with the key.