Modal verb - Can

We use can to express posibility, ability, permission, requests or suggestions.

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Modal verb - Can

The Sargasso Sea

Imagen: "Sargasso sea", US Fish and Wildlife Service, (2006) Wikimedia commons.

Instructions: Read the text. Look at the underlined words.

Can you explain me about the Sargasso Sea?

I can. The Sargasso Sea is a region of the North Atlantic Ocean bounded by four currents, that together form a circulating ocean stream called a gyre. It is the only such oceanic region on Earth to which the term sea has been extended, all others being bound entirely or mostly by land. A distinctive body of water often found with its characteristic brown Sargassum seaweed and often calm blue water, it is very different from the rest of the Atlantic Ocean.

Sargasso Sea. Retrieved and adapted April, 2017 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargasso_Sea

Getting started: The Sargasso sea in popular culture

Instructions: Read the text, then do the activity suggested.

The Sargasso sea is often portrayed in literature and the media as an area of mystery. It is frequently, but erroneously, depicted in fiction as a dangerous area where ships are mired in weed for centuries, unable to escape. The Doc Savage novel The Sargasso Ogre, published in 1933, takes place in the Sargasso where descendants of Elizabethan pirates still live.

Sargasso Sea. Retrieved and adapted, February 2019, from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargasso_Sea

True or False

Instructions: Choose T (true) F (false) for the following statements.

StatementTF
We can remember the Sargasso Sea because of its popular depiction as a mystery area.

Along this depiction, ships can be trapped in the weed for centuries.

Sargasso Sea can actually be considered dangerous for ships.

Let’s check out the Modal verb - Can

Instructions: Look at the information about the Modal verb – Can.

We use Can to express possibility, ability, permission, requests or suggestions.

We use can for any subject.

After modal verb can, the verb is always in the simple form.

Look at the word order in the positive form:

SubjectCanVerb in simple formComplement
MichaelcanspeakFrench.
My best friendscancometo the party.
Icandancevery well.

Now, look at the negative form:

SubjectCan’tVerb in simple formComplement
Michaelcan’tspeakFrench.
My best friendscan’tcometo the party.
Ican’tdancevery well.

Interrogative form:

CanSubjectVerb in simple formComplement
CanMichaelspeakFrench?
Canmy best friendscometo the party?
Canyoudancevery well?

QUIZ

Sargasso sea and literary works

Instructions: Correct the mistakes.

1. Scientists study can all the currents at the Sargasso Sea. .

2. They cans explain the marine plants there. .

3. People can sees the distinctive deep blue color of the Sea. .

4. Some examine can its exceptional clarity. .

5. Others can writes a wide variety of literary works about it. .

done Check

History

Instructions: Make questions with “can” and the following promps:

1. you explain me the origin of the name Sargassum ?

2. somebody trace back Portuguese explorations of the Azores Islands ?

3. the geography teacher talk about the North Atlantic gyre ?

4. anybody read Rufus Festus Avienus’s poem about the Atlantic ?

5. we have an explanation about the 5th century BC Carthaginian Himilco the Navigator ?

done Check

Evaluation

Dangers in the Sargasso Sea

Instructions: Choose the best option.

1. People can’t swims / can’t swim in the Sargasso Sea.

2. A ship can’t being / can’t be trapped there.

3. Many birds can’t lay / can’t lie eggs there.

4. Predators can´t captured / can’t capture turtles there.

5. Sargasso Sea can’t be / can’t been saved from pollution.

done Check
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