Children Looking After Animals

To have or not to have? That is the question that many families ask themselves when children ask for a pet. While it may be true that animals at home can be dangerous and messy, it is undeniable that they can also have a positive impact on children’s personality and physical development.

Since kids do not have much control when interacting with small animals, parents are usually concerned about the risks of having pets without a full-time adult supervision claiming that a sudden attack may happen and maybe be lethal. Equally worrying is the fact that these little creatures are able to turn a room upside down in the blink of an eye, requiring a lot of attention and care every single day and time in order to keep the house at least a bit organized or available to receive guests in an adequate way.

Conversely, pets may become one of the best investments a family can make in a lifetime. People who have chosen to have pets can easily affirm that their kids had become even-tempered, sensitive, responsible and lovely. Not only do these kids seem to be really polite, but they also show great physical characteristics. In other words, children whose houses are pet-friendly, are more physically active and tend to enjoy interaction with the real world much more significantly.

Concluding, considering there will always be pros and cons surrounding this issue and that there won’t be a right answer, I strongly recommend families to have pets because in spite of the disadvantages, the positive aspects are richer and much more beneficial to children.

What is your opinion about it?

Dependent Prepositions

Many of you don't know, but I have recently applied myself to a CAE (Certificate in Advanced English) preparatory course to try my hand at taking the exam by the end of this year. I always wanted to take these proficiency exams in order to keep up with my studies English language and to give a deeper and proper orientation to my students who are usually curious about them. Well, the time has finally come. 

Throughout this experience I intend to share some of my acquired knowledge, worries, fears, etc. This first post is to talk a little about Dependent Preposition...also known as "Hell" (JK).

As learners of English, prepositions are usually a tough part...also for native speakers. Surprise was when I faced the dependent prepositions in the CAE course. The blog You English Lessons Blog defines dependent preposition like:

In the English language, there are many verbs, nouns and adjectives which are followed by specific prepositions.  The prepositions are called dependent because their choice depends on the particular word and its meaning.

Although the prepositions depend on particular words, it does not mean you are free to change them as you wish. If they are dependent, it means they will always be together, they depend on each other, okay?

And then it pops up into our minds: How can we learn them by heart? Easy. Apply the same techniques used to study regular and irregular verbs: MEMORIZATION & PRACTICE!

Trying to make the way easier and softer, I'll share with you a list extracted from the Complete Guide to the TOEIC Test with the most common dependent prepositions. I thank Silvia, my teacher and tutor, for having shared it with me last week because it's old, but gold though. The PDF with a better quality is available by the end of this post.

A really cool way to check and confirm your "guesses" is to assess the Cambridge Dictionary because it brings examples where the dependent prepositions are in bold. For learners, it's a good idea to get the list above and try to create meaningful sentences applying each of them.

Remember: when you use verbs after prepositions, they must come in the -ing form. 
E.g.:

I'm not afraid of speaking in public.

They are interested in working in groups.

Would you like to practice? Click here and try the exercises to put into practice what you've learned about Dependent Prepositions.

If you want the list presented in this post in PDF with a better quality, click here.

Any contributions, don't hesitate to write to contato@teacherpedrobrandao.com.br or simply to leave a comment.