FUNCTIONS:

Agreeing

Disagreeing

Hesitating

Introducing your opinion

Asking for opinions

Expressing preferences

Asking for clarification

Expressing likelihood

Speculating, guessing

Advice and recommendations

Describing a picture

Agreeing

I think you’re right

I would go along with the idea

I completely agree with you

That makes perfect sense

You have a point there

Absolutely, that’s spot on!

I couldn’t agree more

Disagreeing

That’s not how I see it

I couldn’t agree less

You must be kidding

That’s a ridiculous idea, don’t you think?

With all due respect, I must disagree

I’m afraid I can’t see it that way

No way, that’s nonsense!

Hesitating

I’m in two minds about it

I have some reservations regarding that

I’m not entirely convinced

There’s something that gives me pause

While I’m not entirely opposed, I do have some doubts

Introducing your opinion

To my mind

I reckon

In my opinion

As I see it

It seems to me

I would argue

From my point of view

Asking for opinions

Don’t you think …?

What’s your attitude to …?

What’s your opinion of …?

Are you in favour of …?

What’s your position as regards …?

You don’t support …, do you?

Expressing preferences

I prefer…

I would rather…

My preference would be…

I tend to favour…

If I had to choose, I would…

I lean towards…

I am inclined to…

I’m a big fan of…

I really enjoy…

I’m into…

I absolutely love…

I’m crazy about…

I’m fond of…

It’s right up my alley

It’s my thing

I can’t get enough of…

It appeals to me

It’s growing on me

I wouldn’t miss it for the world

I’m not a big fan of…

I don’t really enjoy…

I’m not into…

I can’t stand…

I’m not fond of…

It’s not my cup of tea

It doesn’t do anything for me

I’m sick of…

It gets on my nerves

It puts me off

I’d rather not…

It leaves me cold…

Asking for clarification

Could you please elaborate on that?

Would you mind explaining that further?

I’m not quite sure I understand. Could you clarify?

Could you provide more details?

Can you expand on that point?

Expressing likelihood

“It’s a foregone conclusion that…”

“There’s no doubt in my mind that…”

“I am almost certain that…”

“It’s highly likely that…”

“Chances are that…”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if…”

“It’s possible that…”

“There’s a chance that…”

“It’s unlikely that…”

“I doubt that…”

Speculating, guessing

“It seems to me that…”

“My gut feeling is that…”

“From what I gather…”

“If I were to guess…”

“It would appear that…”

“I reckon that…”

“I suspect that…”

“In all likelihood…”

“There’s a distinct possibility that…”

“It’s plausible that…”

Advice and recommendations

“You might want to consider…”

“Perhaps you could try…”

“If I were you, I would…”

“One thing you could do is…”

“Have you thought of…”

“May I suggest…”

“It might be beneficial to…”

“Consider this approach…”

“Why not give this a go…”

“If it were up to me, I’d…”

Describing a picture

“In the foreground…”

“In the background…”

“In the center of the image…”

“On the left side of the picture…”

“On the right side of the picture…”

“At the top of the picture…”

“At the bottom of the picture…”

“The picture depicts…”

“The image illustrates…”

“The photograph shows…”

“One can see…”

“Notice how…”

“This scene captures…”

“This photograph highlights…”

DICTIONARY

Add new and interesting words from this lesson to your English dictionary.

Store your words and expressions in this handy dictionary. You can create groups and play games based on your entries. There is also a practical importing feature.

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Bardzo mi przykro, ale lekcje na platformie The Blue Tree działają jedynie na komputerze lub tablecie.

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Zespół The Blue Tree

Protect Your Non-Work Time
Learn more words

THE BLUE TREE

Personal
Productivity

CEF B1

CEFR B1

Intermediate

warm up

Answer the questions below. Listen to some model answers and report back what you heard.

Do you sometimes think about work issues when you are home?
How often do you reply to emails or take office calls after working hours?
Would you like to have a better work-life balance?

LISTENING

Listen to the audio. What is the main message?

reading

Read the article below. Check the meaning of any new words by moving your mouse over them.

Protect Your Non-Work Time

Some jobs have very clear lines between when you’re “on” and when you’re “off.” But when you work in a role where the lines are 1. blurred — or potentially nonexistent — it’s important to protect your non-work time. If you feel like work is taking over most of your waking hours, start by clearly defining what “after hours” means for you. 2. Take into account the number of hours you’re expected to work each week, as well as personal 3. commitments like taking your kids to school, making a certain train, or attending an exercise class you really enjoy. When do you need to start and stop to put in the appropriate amount of work time? Then, develop mental 4. clarity about what needs to get done and when you will do it. 5. Keep track of your tasks and plan them out. Make sure you block off time for an end-of-workday 6. wrap-up, where you review and make sure you did everything you needed to do for the day. Lastly, communicate with your colleagues about how (or if) you want to be contacted during your off hours. Really guard your time. If you don’t, you won’t get the mental break that everyone needs.

Wziąć pod uwagę

podsumowanie

COMPREHENSION

Answer these questions using the information from the article and your own experience.

  • When is it especially important to protect your non-work time?
  • What should you take into account when you define your “after hours”?
  • What strategies can you use to protect your non-work time?
  • Do you have a personal system or strategy to keeping track of your tasks and duties?
  • Why do you think it is a good idea to tell your workmates how you want to be contacted after hours?
  • What does the expression “guard your time” imply?

POLL

Cast your vote in the poll.

How would you rate yourself as regards protecting your non-work time?

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DOWNLOAD

Language of rest and relaxation 

Fancy learning some language of rest and relaxation? Download the file. Upack it. There are two files inside. One file is a PDF and the other HTML – it’s an interactive version of the mind map.

how to talk about rest and relaxation

Learning is more effective when you use mind-maps!

COMMENTS

How important is to protect your non-work time? Have you found a way to balance work and life?

Share your views and experience here.

0 Comments

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