Sunday, March 14, 2010

Paco Iglesias' informal letter

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did:

_______________________________________28 Randalls Street
_______________________________________Baskerville Hall
_______________________________________Devonshire
_______________________________________3 March
Dear Holmes,

Thank you for your letter. It was great to hear from you.
Sorry for not writing earlier but I’ve been so occupied since you went back to London.
I’m writing to thank you again for resolving the strange death of my uncle Charles and for saving my life. When you stayed here it was very interesting to see how two clever men, you and Watson, could find out the truth about that frightening hound.

After your departure, I’ve been quite busy in my new house. I’ll need time to get used to living in this wonderful valley. It’s a bit hard when I have been living all my life in North America. I’ll have to hire a butler soon because Barrymore and his wife have left the village after the terrifying death of Selden, Barrymore’s brother-in-law. Also I’ve been seeing and talking with Mrs Stapleton every evening for the last two months. She’s the best woman I’ve ever meet. We are thinking about living together.

That’s hardly all for now. But I have a slight problem. Four days ago I heard at night a howl which woke me up. I saw how you killed the hound and how Stapleton disappeared in the marsh, so I don’t worry. But, what should I do? Would you give me some advice, please?

Please, don’t forget to write back soon. Would you like to go back to Baskerville Hall to investigate again and to see the changes I have had in my house? Mrs Stapleton, Laura Lyons and Dr. Mortimer would like to see you. Summer would be a good season: London is so crowed at that time and you’ll be able to have a rest here.

I hope to hear from you soon. Give my regards to Watson.

Best wishes,


Henry Baskerville

Twenty-fourth week

How are you this week?

I guess a little bit nervous... well... don't be.

Our last two lessons were quite interesting. On Tuesday, Taran taught us some useful expressions to keep conversation going, and then Miguel talked about Lemurs in Madagascar.
Here you can read his article, if you haven't yet.

Then we were solving some questions you had about relative clauses.

You can download the key to handouts 33 and 34 clicking
on this link.

Thursday was devoted to Aung Sang Suu Kyi, as we celebrated the International Women's Day this week. Here you have the two videos that we watched. I think that you will have better sound quality in your computers and you will understand them better.

BBC Profile

Aung Sang Suu Kyi on the Non-violent Approach:



And, of course, "Walk on" by U2, a special edition, Live from London:





Next week we will have exams: the written part on Tuesday (reading, listening and writing) and Speaking on Thursday (dialogues). I hope you can find time to revise and all of you get good results.

By the way, St. Patrick's Day is on Wednesday. It is an important celebration in many English-speaking countries, especially in Ireland, and one of the things they do is to wear something green, as it is supposed to bring good luck. Why don't you wear something green to come to class this week? Thus, we could celebrate this party and at the same time it will be a kind of charm!
Here you can read more about St. Patrick's Day and how it is celebrated in different countries. The most important symbol this day is the shamrock, as St. Patrick said it represented God.

Watch this funny "biography" of St. Patrick:



You can also read my last year's entry on this celebration here.
Good luck!!