2nd term Literary Circles planning (3ºC, 3ºB) NEW DATES

Literary circles dates. Remember  all these stories will be included in an exam at the end of the term where you must get at least a 30% correct to pass the subject, just like in the first term. Next Wed 27 you must hand in the LC worksheet for My One and Only Escape.
             

JAN 12: MEETING CEZANNE + I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS

JAN 19 26: THE GIANT´S NECKLACE

JAN 26 FEB 2: MY ONE AND ONLY GREAT ESCAPE

FEB 2 9: MY FATHER IS A POLAR BEAR + THE SILVER SWAN

FEB 9 16: THE MOZART QUESTION 

FEB 16 23: WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?

FEB 23 MAR 1: HALF A MAN + FOR CARLOS, A LETTER FROM YOUR FATHER

MAR 1 MAR 8: SINGING FOR MRS PETTIGREW 

Comparative and superlative online practice

Click on the links:
-Comparative and Superlative mix (easy warm-up).
-More like the previous one (multiple choice)
-Still another dead easy one.
-Comparative gap-filling exercise 
-Comparative matching exercise  
-A crossword  now
 -Let´s focus now on Comparatives  of Equality (as...as) 
-Only Superlatives here. 
-A Superlative quiz
-A Comparative/Superlative mix 
-Correlative comparatives
-A bit more difficult mix now (including Correlative Comparatives).
 -Irregular comparative and superlative forms.

What do women want most of all? (3ºB,C)

That´s the million-dollar question. And it´s also the question Queen Guinevere told the lecherous knight to find the right answer for if he wanted to save his life in The Wife of Bath Tale from The Canterbury Tales. An ugly old woman was ready to tell him the difficult answer on condition that he promised to do whatever she asked him to. The knight, caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, accepted the deal.You had to continue the story at that thorny turning-point, let´s see what you have come up with (just a few have grasped the nettle though...).

" Eventually the knight offered the hag his rough hand. When she got it, she decided to do a surprising thing: she cast a spell on it, and converted it into a smooth, sensitive hand typical of a handsome prince. After doing that, the woman disappeared. Confused and puzzled, the young knight tried to discover what that meant. He was thinking about it when he met a beautiful maiden. Her name was Clara, and the knight asked her for help. She also didn´t know what that meant, but she liked his hand a lot.
Therefore, after three hours thinking about that mysterious riddle, he reached a conclusion: women prefer sensitive men (a metaphor of how his new hand was) rather than ferocious and barbaric men (how his hand was previously). As a consequence, he ran quickly to tell that answer to the queen. She said that it was right, and from then on, he lived in peace and harmony". (Alberto S.)


"The woman told him that the knight had to steal the queen´s crown. He said: "But that violates many laws, I´ll lose my life!" The woman said that he had promised to do whatever she asked him to do. The knight, furious and scared, stole the queen´s crown and put it on the old woman´s head. She transformed into a beautiful lady and said: "What a woman wants is beauty", and she disappeared (...)". (Alexandra D.)

"Finally the old ugly woman told the young knight what a woman liked most. The young knight told King Arthur the answer the old woman had told him. The king couldn´t believe it, then he ordered his servants to call all the ladies that were in his castle, then the young man whispered the answer to each one of them. The king saw that when the young man told them, the women gasped in admiration. The ladies told the king that he knew the answer. the king saved the knight´s life. Then after a long time he reached the highest rank in his army. One day in battle the young man died and he took the answer to The Underworld. The ladies couldn´t tell the king the answer because if they told anyone they would suffer a spell that would take their lives away". (Cristian F. A very poetic way of dodging the issue, Cristian.)

"(...) On the way home, the knight met a beautiful woman that was crying in the middle of the road, (...) she was alone in the world. (...) The warrior fell in love with her and a few months later they got married, the knight forgot about the queen´s question. Then, a week before the day he had to answer that question he was calmed because he had found the true love. The day of "the answer" he went to the palace with his wife, and answered: "Love, your majesty, we all need love, men and women".  When he turned back, he realized that the beautiful young woman was reality the old ugly woman, she was a witch. The queen ordered the detention of both of them and accused them of witchcraft". (George B.)

"(...) Nobody told him the answer, so he was sure he was going to die. However he was still trying to get it. He travelled all over the kingdom trying to find someone who knew the answer, until he found a girl who told him that the answer was "love". 
He was confused. All the time looking for the answer and it was love?! He went to the queen´s palace and told her the answer. When she heard it, she started laughing. It was the most stupid answer she had heard in all her life. Finally, the knight died. Nobody ever discovered the right answer". (Irene M.)

"(...) The day after, they both went to the royal palace and answered the queen´s question correctly. [but what was it??] In exchange, the old and ugly woman asked to marry the young knight. He, sadly, remembered his promise and ended up marrying her. She said she could become a very beautiful woman, but he had to tell her to care for him. But the knight didn´t trust her, so he ignored her words. One day he got a high feve, which at that time could be mortal. Even so, he refused his wife´s help. (...) She decided to disobey his husband and prepared a magic potion and gave it to the knight. At the very moment that he had the potion  as his last chance to survive, the old and ugly woman transformed into a gorgeous blonde young girl who later explained it was a spell a witch had cast on her because she was jealous of her beauty. The knight survived and they both lived happily". (Óscar R.)

"'If you want to know the answer to that question, you´ll have to live a day like a woman!`, so she threw some magic dust at him. All turned grey, he, or maybe I should say she, wanted to vomit, she felt very strange and when the dust vanished the 24 women appeared again.
They treated him as one more of them, and learned that being a woman was not easy. He had to stand discrimination and do all the chores. After one day, the old woman appeared again. he was transformed into a knight and he returned to see the queen. When he saw her, he answered:
"What a woman wants most? One thing men have had for a long time. Respect". (Álvaro C.)

Great work!

The Wife of Bath tale (from The Canterbury Tales)

What are the differences between this version of the tale and the one you read?

Grammar online drills (3ºB, C)

OMG, the exams are coming! Here you are extra online practice on tenses. Click on the links:

-Past simple in the negative (oh yes, you make many mistakes there)
-Past Simple/Past Continuous.
-Simple Past vs Present Perfect
-Simple Past vs Present Perfect(2)
-Past Simple vs Past Perfect 
-Present Perfect Continuous
-Present Perfect Simple vs Present Perfect Continuous
-Past Perfect Simple 
-A bit of everything (don´t do the drills on the Future)
-Irregular verbs forms 
-More irregular verbs 
-A crossword now.

Used to / be used to / get used to

Try this link to practise these tricky structures.

The Gift of The Magi spin-offs (3ºB,C)

So this is how O.Henry´s The Gift of The Magi should follow according to your classmates...

"While they were crying, Jim realised how much he loved Della because she was the only woman that made him forget the value of an object, his watch, to see the value of love. In that moment Jim knelt down in front of her and asked her if she wanted to marry him. (...) They decided to sell the combs and the gold chain to get money for the wedding. They would save up to obtain more money to be able to celebrate it, but for them the only important thing was to be together for ever. Six years later things had changed, Jim was now a very important businessman. One day, while he was going home he saw his watch in a shop window so without thinking it twice he bought it." (Andrea R.)

"(...) They eventually ended up losing their house and Jim was fired. In spite of all those tragic events, their love didn´t vanish, not even after passing away. The young couple starved to death on the cold streets of their small and lost town, but their love is still alive nowadays, even if their light is gone. 
Not even poverty or death could tear them apart; and that, my fellow reader, is the true power of love". (Laurentiu C.).

"Some months passed and Della´s hair grew back so she started using her combs, but suddenly she realized that Jim had sold his watch to buy her two combs so his present, the golden chain, was useless. Della had an idea: she had two combs, both pretty exensive, so she decided to sell one and buy Jim´s watch and give it back to him. (...) Years later, Jim became a very rich businessman and Della became a supermodel, they weren´t poor any more. Della always used her combs, remembering beautiful memories; and Jim always carried his watch and gold chain, which gave him a lot of luck. They also had a daughter, whose favourite story was the one in which her parents sacrificed their most valuable things to buy their loved one a gift for Christmas". (Alexandra D.)

"(...) Their lives kept going as usual but something was different since that day. Della had to leave her job because she was pregnant, which meant Jim had to work for two, in this case for three.(...) When the baby was born the family´s nightmare began not because of the child but because none of them had a job. In a desperate situation Della had to return to her mother so that she could help her, which meant she had to leave Jim on his own [to his own devices]. Della felt good at her mother´s but couldn´t sleep well because of the thought she had left the man she loved and that their son wouldn´t know who his father was". (Iulian D.)

"They both went for their dinner but for their surprise, the table was full of marvellous plates. Della, amazed, ate her dinner heartily. Then they both decided to go to their uncomfortable bed. James almost fainted when he saw his room. "This is definitely not a 8$ a week room", he said. Everything was covered in red silk and golden ornaments and there was a beautiful mirror from which three men emerged. They looked as if they were kings, wise old kings. The first one said he would like to bring them back their two favourite possessions, but it was not going to be easy. The second one told them that in order to get back Della´s hair and James´ watch, they would need to prove their love to their superior, God. The third one said he would teleport them to heaven.(...) The couple explained to God their story which proved their love. Two diamond chests appeared in front of each. James´contained his beautiful watch with the golden chain. Della´s contained a magic piece of bread and her beautiful combs". (Óscar R.)

"After Christmas, Della and Jim weren´t the same and their relation was getting colder and colder every day.(...) Years later, Jim got married to another girl but Della couldn´t forget Jim so she decided she wouldn´t get rid of the combs. (...) Many years later, Della was an elderly woman and she liked spending time in flea markets with old things and books. Now, while she was in a street market she saw something amazing (...) It was Jim´s watch. She bought it without thinking and immediately started to look for him. She found him, they met and when she saw him, without saying any words, opened her hand where she had the watch. Jim´s eyes were shining in excitement, telling her in tears that he had never stopped looking at the box where the chain was. From that moment on, they were good friends." (Patricia E.)

"One week later, when the lovers were in the living room, they were talking about selling the gifts that they gave each other because they couldn´t use them so it was better to get the money back and spend it on food and things that they were going to use.(...) [However,] Della was thinking of selling only the chain of the watch because she said that her hair could grow and she could use the comb but the watch was impossible to retrieve.  Della expressed her idea to Jim but he didn´t agree with her. Jim said: "If you aren´t willing to sell the comb, I won´t sell the chain because for me it was also a very valuable gift". After a week of fightings the lovers reached an agreement: to sell the gifts because the most valuable gift that they could have was the love between them". (Carolina B.)

"Some years passed, they were still poor. he was still in love with her, but she wasn´t any longer. She realized that, without money... nothing made sense. (...) So after some days thinking, she left the poor boyfriend to go with another rich man. The months passed and then someone knocked at the door. It was Della, beautiful as a princess, she was very well dressed up with a lot of jewellery. 
-Come in please, said Jim.
While they were talking she kissed him. She said to him that she had invented that story, that she didn´t love him, to go with someone rich and take all his money to give it to her truly love. From now on they would be rich". (Bea M.)

"(...) Della was about to leave the shop but something in the shop started shining, she immediately went towards it, it was a money box. She thought it wouldn´t be useful as they were poor but finally she exchanged the chain for the money box. She then inserted her dollar and 87 cents and a bill of 20$ appeared. She was surprised, every $1.87 she inserted into the money box a $20 bill appeared. She was about to call him, but suddenly she heard something from the money box; she went where the money box was and a genie appeared. From that moment on they were rich". (Marta V.)

"The following morning Della woke up and realised that everything had been a dream, since when she looked at herself in the mirror her hair was long. She felt really happy because she though she had learned a lesson: "The best gift is to have the person you love most beside you", and that the real Christmas message is not to buy the most expernsive presents but to spend time with your family and your loved ones.
That morning, Della decided to buy a little present for Jim with the money she had and she also prepared a modest dinner with beautiful Christmas ornaments. When Jim arrived Della put her arms warmly around him and he realised Della was the most beautiful valuable gift life had given him". (Sarai L.)

Great work.

The Last Leaf PQE quiz

Have you read O.Henry´s The Last Leaf yet? No? And what are you waiting for? Answer these questions about the story following the PQE method.

1. Why did the "art people" like living in Greenwich Village?

2. Why did Johnsy and Sue decide to set up a studio?

3. According to the doctor, is Sue likely to recover from pneumonia?


4. According to the doctor again, what is the most important factor in Johnsy´s recovery?

5. According to Johnsie, what will happen when the last leaf on the ivy vine falls?

6. Was Behrman a successful painter? 

7. What kind of flat did he live in?


8. Why didn´t the last leaf flutter with the gusts of wind?


Have it ready for next Wednesday.

Face 2 Face plays

Did you like the performances by Face 2 Face in the school last week? Learn more about the plays and the actors here (go to The Shows and About Us>The Actors).

Beowulf animated movie

So what should be done with Grendel? (3ºB,C)

Grendel as you know is a dreadful blood-thirsty monster who (or should I say which?) slaughtered many warriors in a brutal way. Beowulf killed him, but what if he lived nowadays? What should we do with a monster like Grendel now, in the 21st century? We no longer live in barbaric, brutal Middle Ages, we are far more civilised... aren´t we?  In pairs (the same ones as for the presentations), you have been assigned the following possible solutions for the situation and countries, because as you know we are going to find a way to solve this using the UN model. You have to defend your action in the Tuesday 27 conference, so you are supposed to prepare an opening speech (1.30 min long) and come up with pros but also cons about it (to be ready for refutations in the moderated caucus, obviously in your speech focus only on the good points of your action). You should also think of disadvantages of the other punishments in order to have arguments against the other pairs in the caucus. In relation with your country you don´t have to prepare anything, just make a placard with the country name on it. Good luck!

STUDENTS´NAMES 3ºC	ACTION	COUNTRY
Ioan+Reyes	Cloning. Grendel can be an excellent soldier, imagine 1,000 of them.	NEW ZEALAND
Marta+Lucía	Death penalty	UNITED STATES
José Luis (x2)	Life Imprisonment	ARGENTINA
Óscar+Alejandro J.	Reeducation in a special institution with special teachers	SWEDEN
Andrea+Carolina	Confinement in a zoo.	SOUTH KOREA
Cristina+Alejandro C.	Confinement in comfortable premises while a team of top-qualified scientists study his body and brain. Maybe Grendel can help cure serious illnesses.	ITALY
Gabriel+David	Confinement in Siberia.	INDIA
Jorge+Carlos	Police work. Grendel, properly controlled, could be used as a policeman for especially dangerous situations (terrorist attacks, etc).	UKRAINE
Daniel+Cristian	No punishment at all. It must be assumed that Grendel is a monster and his nature should be respected at all costs. Monsters have also rights.	SOUTH AFRICA

STUDENTS´NAMES 3ºB	ACTION	COUNTRY
Raquel+Cristina	Confinement in a mental institution.	NEW ZEALAND
Óscar+Rubén	Death penalty	UNITED STATES
Beatrice+Daniela	Life Imprisonment	ARGENTINA
Paula H.+Paula F.	Reeducation in a special institution with special teachers	SWEDEN
Emil+Andrei	Confinement in a zoo.	SOUTH KOREA
Jaime+Raúl	30 year imprisonment.	ITALY
Paula N.+Pedro	Confinement in Siberia.	INDIA
David M.+Alberto	Police work. Grendel, properly controlled, could be used as a policeman for especially dangerous situations (terrorist attacks, etc).	UKRAINE
Patricia A.+Alexandra	No punishment at all. It must be assumed that Grendel is a monster and his nature should be respected at all costs. Monsters have also rights.	SOUTH AFRICA
Álvaro C.+Pilar	Negotiated action. A team of highly-skilled mediators (including both of you) will speak to him and will reach an agreement with him on what action to take.	THE NETHERLANDS
Nacho+David C.	Confinement in comfortable premises while a team of top-qualified scientists study his body and brain. Maybe Grendel can help cure serious illnesses.	RUSSIA
Álvaro+Laurentiu	Cloning. Grendel can be an excellent soldier, imagine 1,000 of them.	CHINA
Sarai+Patricia E.	Space exploration. After some training (you both will be in charge of it), Grendel will be sent to a distant planet. This way we kill two birds with one stone.	ROMANIA
Larisa+Irene	Reeducation in a special institution with special teachers (you both among others)	BRAZIL
George+Iulian	Confinement in a deserted island far away from populated areas.	EGYPT