The best Halloween competition (2011)

Dear students,

I remind you that the stories you wrote in November to continue the first Chapter of "Owl Hall" are already available in the English4PET website: http://www.palimpalem.com/4/English4PET/ (in the Competition Corner).

I also would like to congratulate all the people who have participated in this competition as they have created really nice Chapters 2 for this beautiful and mysterious story.

Well, now it's time to vote. Remember the rules:

1) You can only give 5 points to ONE story. The best story for you!

2) You can only give 4 points to ONE story. The second best story for you!

3) The other stories can be given 3, 2 or 1 points each.

4) Obviously, YOU CANNOT VOTE FOR YOUR OWN STORY!

5) You can't tell anyone what your story or nickname is!!!

Well, good luck to all of you!

A terrible holiday

Dear students,

This month you will have to write a short story (no more than 100 words) in which you have to explain the worst holiday you have ever had in your whole life. If you are a lucky person and something like this has never happened to you, use your imagination, please!

For help you can consult page 8 in your workbook (exercise 1 in the Writing Section is a fantastic piece of information).

Read the stories of your partners and vote for the best ones, too! Justify why they are the best ones, ok?

Take care and write soon.

Your English teacher

Welcome back to the new school year 2011-12!!!

Teacher teacharachera

Hello everybody!

A new school year has started and it's time to brush up your English, especially after the holidays.

This year you will find new resources available online both in this blog and in the old web "www.palimpalem.com/7/English4adultsA2". Remember to check both sources from time to time as Audrie will recommend if you listen to her by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the pink frame.

Have fun and learn a lot!!!

Fantasy & Horror stories

The activity for this month consists of reading the second story in the book "A Pair of Ghostly Hands". It's title is "Lost Hearts" and it was written by M. R. James.

After reading it, write a brief summary (about 60 words) and say whether you liked this short story and whether you would recommend it to a friend.

Who is (or was) E.M.James? Extra points for those who discover who is the person... Is this writer a man or a woman? What do the initials E and M stand for?

Well, hurry up and solve the mystery! And, of course, enjoy the reading...

"Food & Table Manners Around the World"

Hello everyone!

We start the new year - even though we're en February by now - with a new topic for you to write about. Well, if you happen to be Chinese, you have just started the year 2011... Be as it may, here is the new activity for you. It deals with the topic of food around the world and also with the really useful topic of "table manners". After all, we don't want to offend our hosts in the future or to act inappropriately in a business meeting, right?

So for those of you who want to discover Table Manners Around the World... what about doing this nice Online Quiz? http://www.fekids.com/img/kln/flash/DontGrossOutTheWorld.swf

And now comes the WRITING TASK!

This month we are going to create a "Food and Drink Guide for Visitors". So what about choosing an interesting recipe to talk about and, apart from that, telling foreigners about some of your traditions? Read other students' comments before writing so that you do not describe the same recipe or explain the same traditions, ok? Obviously, the first person to write has more options than the last!!! ;)

For help, you can have a look at page 94, exercise 1 and 8. Both will be useful for this task. As always, if you have any problems do not hesitate to contact me, ok?

Good luck and enjoy your meal!