Saturday, December 17, 2011

New activity about crime

YOUTH CRIME ACTIVITY

Try to find the meaning of the new words, then watch the video and answer the questions that follow either on your blog or mine. Good luck, Manolis! :-)

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Fantastic tenses chart!

These visual explanations of each English tense provide visual clues for all major tenses of English. Each tense has a dedicated visual clue card with an explanatory sentence. These tense charts help learners use visual intelligence to understand key tense concepts. Basic tense usage and sentence construction is provided following each visual tense chart.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Oliver Twist


In a city of England, there was a place for people who had no money and nowhere to live, called the warehouse. Oliver Twist was born in there. His mother died after the birth. Poor Oliver was born in a world which had no love or pity for him, since he had no relatives. When Oliver became a nine-year-old child, he started working for three poor meals per day until the day when Oliver with his friends decided to ask for more food. As a result, Mr. Bumble, an important officer in the town, took him away and shut him up in a dark room with a notice on the gate which was offering five pounds to anybody who would take Oliver. Oliver was a prisoner in the dark room, clearing the yard every morning. One week later, Mr. Sowerberry, a man who was making coffins, saw the notice on the gate and asked to take the little child with him for five pounds.

That evening, Mr. Bumble took Oliver to Mr. Sowerberry’s house, but his wife got very angry, as Oliver was just a little child yet and he would grow up on their food and drink. Next morning, a boy whose his name was Noah Claypole, was knocking the door. Because his parents were penniless, all other boys were rude to him, but Oliver didn’t know that, so he was glad that he in turn could be rude to Oliver.

During the moths which followed, Noah and Mrs. Sowerberry made Oliver’s life very unpleasant, while Mr. Sowerberry was very kind with him. One day, Noah told Oliver that he comes of a bad family and in a second, Oliver got mad and attacked him. Mrs. Sowerberry listened to the screams and rushed in the room the boys were fighting and blamed Oliver for his bad behavior and asked Noah to run to Mr. Bumble and ask him to come home while at the same time, she shut Oliver in a dark room. When Mr. Bumble came, he told Mrs. Sowerberry that she was very generous with the kid and she should stop giving meat at his meals, but only some soup and then he left.

When the first light of the day showed through the windows, the little kid left the house running forward to the hills. He was walking for seven days having some bread and water with him, until he arrived into the little town of Barnet, a few miles from London. There, he met a child who was about his age, his name was Jack Dawkins. Jack gave him food and a place to stay for the night with some other kinds and an old man named Fagin. Next morning, when Oliver woke up, the old man and the other kids taught him how to steal handkerchiefs and watches, but he couldn’t understand how it would help him to become a good man. Some days later, Oliver got out with the two other boys for some pick-pocketing. Their target was an old man who seemed to be rich. When they took his wallet, the three children started running back to their lodgings, but one resident grabbed Oliver and injured him. The old man understood that Oliver wasn’t the thief and he decided to take him at his place until he became better. At the same time, the two other children returned back to Fagin and told him the story. Immediately, Fagin decided that they would have to find Oliver and get him back; otherwise, he could cause them many problems if he spoke to the police.

For a couple of weeks, Oliver was ill and was lying in a bed at the old gentleman’s house. A servant of his was taking care of Oliver since he felt better. The same night, he had to return some books he had borrowed and asked Oliver to return them and gave him some pounds to pay for them. While Oliver was going to the bookstore, Bill Sikes, a friend of Fagin found him and returned him to Fagin immediately. Fagin took off his new clothes and took the five pounds from his pockets and shut him in a dark room.
The next morning, Fagin took Oliver to the other thief, Bill Sikes, a bloodthirsty man who needed Oliver to enter in a house he had already targeted and help him rob it. When Oliver got into the house, a couple of servants saw and shot him. After that the thief grabbed the child and started running to the fields, but the servants were running after them, so he left him on the ground and started running alone until the servants lost him.

After some hours, Oliver stood up crying from pain and his hand was bleeding. He took a look around until he saw the house he had to steal and then he decided to walk there and ask for help. The servants opened the door and recognized his face without knowing what to do. At the same time a pretty lady named Rose, appeared from the top of the stairs and asked the servants to lay the poor boy on a bed and call the doctor. In a couple of days, Oliver became better and for three months he lived with the family, being very optimistic for his future.

He was very pleased for his new life, until one night, Rose felt very sick and Mr. Giles, who was the host, sent Oliver to find the doctor for Rose. Oliver started running ahead to the nearest inn in order to find the doctor, but on his way to home, he met a strange man who was very aggressive to Oliver. Oliver tried to get away and started running back home. At the same night the doctor came and was taking a look at Rose, while Oliver was at his bedroom when he saw Fagin with the strange man from the inn pointing at him. He understood that they were planning to take him back and turn him into a thief again.

The strange man named Monks, seemed to be very anxious about Oliver, and he tried to learn as much as he could for the boy. After a meeting with the workshop’s master, Mr. Bumble, revealed to the master that Oliver is his brother. On the other hand, Nancy, which was Fagin’s follower, was looking after Bill Sikes as he was ill for weeks. Next morning, after Sikes felt asleep, she run ahead to Rose’s house, where Oliver was living at, in order to warn her that Monks and Fagin were planning to take Oliver back.

Rose told the story to Oliver and both decided to go and speak to Mr. Brownlow again and reveal him Nancy’s secret. When they arrived at Mr. Brownlow’s house, Rose explained what happened to Oliver that night he sent him to the bookstore, and then the old gentleman decided that they had to find the man named Monks.

Nancy had told Rose that she could only find her at 12 o’clock every Sunday evening. Next Sunday, Mr. Brownlow with Rose and Oliver went to find Nancy, but Fagin had sent Sikes to follow her and find out if she would reveal his secrets. When the little girl returned, Fagin was sitting with Sikes waiting for her; they were waiting to murder her. After they killed the little girl, they both fled away, but the police found Fagin really soon. Some days later, Sikes found some lodgings to stay, but it didn’t last long. One peaceful night, an angry crowd gathered around the house Sikes was hiding. That night was his last, as he decided to hang himself from the roof of the house.

Monks had a little better future, as Mr. Brownlow found him and asked him to leave poor Oliver alone and gave him what belonged to him as his little brother. Monks had no other choice, so he left Oliver and moved to America, where he died in prison after some months. Oliver’s future was connected with Mr. Brownlow and his little friend Rose.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Dream jobs!



 What do you do for a living? Is that your dream job? What IS your dream job?

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Teaching and Learning English: ADVANCED GRAMMAR PAGES ON ESL.ABOUT.COM

Teaching and Learning English: ADVANCED GRAMMAR PAGES ON ESL.ABOUT.COM: Theory and examples Verb 'use' to express habits Differences between action and stative verbs Reported speech Reporting verbs Cond...