Unit 1

Vocabulary:
• Hassle: problem “I was able to return the merchandise without any hassle”.
• To hassle someone: to bother someone (típics venedors que vénen a casa a vendre).
• Hustle and bustle: a place where there’s a lot of people “The market is a hustle and
bustle of colourful activity”.
• To have a change of heart: to have a change of opinion.
• Out of the blue: something unexpected.
• Fall into place: something that produce the situation you want.
• To go downhill: something that gradually becomes worse.
• To be on the cards: something that is likely to happen.
• The rest is history: something that you are sure that people know what happened
next.
• To flee: to scape “Millions of people have had to flee their homes because of the
war”.
• Tit for tat: if you do X I will do Y.
• Bounty hunter: cazador de recompensas.
• Knitted fabric: teixit de punt.
• Crocheting: patchwork.
• Busking: singing in the street for money.
• On and off: procés en el qual hi ha hagut pauses “on and off have been learning
English since I was in the school”.
• Embrace: abraçar, acceptar, adopter “many companies embrace new technologies”.
• Deplete: esgotar, reduïr “the firm has depleted its financial resources”.
• Fruitful: beneficial / sthg very productive or that gives a lot of results.
• Priceless: something very expensive.
• Countless: something that happens a lot of times.
• Squatters: okupes.
• Framework: marc, context “the new financial framework should bolster European..”
• Upturn: something that has been improved, repunt, creixement, recoperació.
• Outfall: desembocadura “the river’s outfall…”.
• Outbreak: brot / començament/ spread of a disease “an outbreak of a contagious
disease”.
• Windfall: beneficis imprevistos / someone wins a lot of money suddenly.
• Windbreak: cortavientos. A piece of clothe that protects from the wind.
• Windproof: resistant al vent.
• Rainfall: precipitació (pluja).
• Creditworthy: ser solvent econòmicament.
• Downfall: caiguda / decadència /when someone in a position of power losses that
power.
• Downturn: crisi /desacceleració / recessió / something decreases.
• To convey: transmetre quelcom verbalment.

Phrasal Verbs:
• Pay someone off: to suborn someone.
• Track someone/something down: to find someone or something.
• Jump at: to accept an opportunity.
• Cut back on: reduce significantly.
• Take on: to hire someone.
• Break up: to separate into smaller pieces / to come to an end / to end a relationship
• Get in with: to become friendly with somebody, especially in order to gain an
advantage.
• Turn up: to appear / to find by chance / to arrive.
• Help out: to help somebody, especially in a difficult situation.
• Catch up with: to finally start to cause problems to somebody after they have
managed to avoid this for some time / if the police or authorities catch up with
somebody, they find and punish them after some time.
• Cheer up: to become more cheerful.
• Hand around: to offer or pass something, especially food or drinks, to all people in
a group.
• Make off with: to scape with something, especially something stolen.
• Get down: to make someone feel sad or lose hope.
• Come up against: to have to deal with something difficult or unpleasant.
• Get over with: same as get overàto do something or allow something to happen,
because you want it to be finished or you want to start something else “we decided
to get the holidays over before we started decorating the house”.
• Come up: if a problem comes up, it happens and needs to be dealt with immediately.
• Get in: to deliver or send something to a person or place.
• Get around: if news gets around, a lot of people hear it.
• Make up for: to provide something good, so that something bad seems less
important.
• Get across: to make people understand something.
• Carry out: to do a particular piece of work, research…
• Get off: to leave the place where you work at the end of the day.
• Come off: to achieve a particular result in an activity, especially a competition or
fight.
Grammar:
» Present perfect simple:
o When talking about events or situations that started in the past and are still
true “Amelia has lived in the same house all her life”.
o When thinking about the present effects of something that happened in the
past “I’ve lost my purse, so I need some money for the bus”.
o When talking about a recent event or situation “Jack has just phoned to wish
you good luck”.
o When referring to something that will happen at some time in the future “As
soon as I have settled in, come and stay”.
» Present perfect continuous:
o To stress the period of time involved “I’ve been sitting at this computer all
day”.
o To refer to a situation that continues “membership numbers at this club have
been falling year by year”.
o To focus on the present effects of a recent event “you can tell it’s been
raining – the seats are still damp”.
o To refer to something that has recently stopped “have you been crying?”.
» Past perfect simple: to refer to an event which took place before something else “I
had just stepped into the bath when the phone rang”.
» Past perfect continuous: to stress the continuity of an event at an earlier point in
time “their cat had been missing for over a week when a neighbour spotted it in the
local park”.
» Future perfect simple: to refer to events which have not yet happened but will
definitely do so at a given time in the future “by the end of September, I will have
started that course in London”.
» Future perfect continuous: to indicate duration at a specified time in the future
“come next Saturday, we’ll have been going out together for a whole year”.
» Other modal verbs: to express regret about the past, should or ought to is combined
with a perfect tense form “we should never have bought Alex that drum kit”.

Word formation:
» Generally, the suffix -al is added to a noun, as in environmental.
» The suffixes -able and -ive frequently combine with verbs to form adjectives, as in
favourable and supportive.
» The suffix -ous combines with nouns, as in courageous.
» Other common adjectival suffixes added to nouns are -ful and -less, as in meaningful
and harmless.
• Adventure: adventurous.
• Alternate: alternative.
• Disaster: disastrous.
• Dispose: disposable.
• Exhaust: exhaustive.
• Experiment: experimental.
• Flaw: flawless.
• Hope: hopeful.
• Identify: identifiable.
• Mass: massive.
• Notice: noticeable.
• Philosophy: philosophical.
• Predict: predictable.
• Speech: speechless.
• Understand: understandable.