SAMPLE WRITINGS

A short article expressing their opinion about what life will be like in the future.

 I believe we will be healthier and our lives will be easier in the future. Firstly, scientists will find cures for many diseases and we will also live longer. Secondly, we might have robots to do all the work so we will have more free time. Finally, I think with GM foods there will be enough food for everyone.

All in all, to me, the future will be a better place for everyone.

(Lucy, 16)

A short description of yourself or anyone you know.

 My sister is twenty. She´s medium height and slim. She´s got medium-length fair hair and a fringe. She´s also got an oval face with big green eyes and arched eyebrows. She´s got a long nose and a full mouth with a beauty spot on her upper lip.  Everyone says she is very pretty.

In relation to her personality, she is quite warm and friendly and has got a good sense of humour. She´s also very generous and helpful and she´s always willing to help me when I need her. But she can get very bad-tempered when she is angry or upset.   

Three Students Hurt in School Bus Crash

Three students were seriously injured yesterday morning when the school bus they were travelling on swerved off the road and crashed. The accident took place at 8 am on Hill Road in Newtown.

The bus driver was driving along Hill Road when a car came around the corner on the wrong side of the road. He swerved to avoid crashing into it and drove into a small wall. Mr Grey, the car driver, said that he was not speeding but witnesses disagree. One witness said, “He was driving too fast. The bus driver acted quickly.”

The police arrested the car driver. The injured students are recovering in South Shore Hospital. 

Swerved (changed direction)   speeding (driving fast)   witnesses (viewers of an accident)

An email about your holiday

Hi Mike,

Greetings from California. The weather´s gorgeous and the food in delicious. I´ve been at the ­ Camp Pacific for a week now and I´ve done lots of exciting things.

So far I´ve met lots of interesting people and I´ve made some new friends. Together we´ve been sailing and water skiing. The weather is great so I spend most mornings sunbathing. Unfortunately, I got sunburnt two days ago. It´s getting better but I still can´t go to the beach. I haven´t bought any souvenirs yet, but there´s plenty of time for that. I´ve taken a lot of pictures to show you when I get back.  See you in a week.

Take care,

Janet

A letter of application

Dear Mrs Brown,
        I am writing to apply for the position of part-time shop assistant as advertised in Sunday´s Gazette.
        I am a sixteen year old student currently in my final year at secondary school. I am studying for my
GCSEs* and I expect to do well in both English and Maths. Although I have no work experience, I am an honest and hardworking person. I am friendly and I like to meet new people and I feel these are suitable qualities for the position.
       I am available for an interview in the afternoons. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
       Your sincerily,
  Sarah Green
  Sarah Green
* Exams that British children take at the age of sixteen.

A pros and cons essay

We all like going to the zoo, but what about the animals? Should we Keep them in zoos, or is it wrong to take them out of their natural habitats?

There are certain advantages to keeping animals in zoos. Firstly, zoos help animals survive. They offer them a safe place to live in and food to eat. Endangered species also have a safe place to breed so that they won´t disappear. Also, zoos can be educational. People can visit them and learn about animals and their behaviour.

On the other hand, there are certain drawbacks to keeping animals in zoos. First of all, animals are kept in small places or cages so they could be unhappy. Secondly, it is not natural for animals to live separately from each other as different animals depend on each other for survival.

To sum up, there are strong arguments both for and against zoos. Although most zoos do their best to protect animals, I believe that we should live animals in the wild and help them to survive in their natural homes.

WRITING Letter of application

Dear Mrs Brown,
        I am writing to apply for the position of part-time shop assistant as advertised in Sunday´s Gazette.
        I am a sixteen year old student currently in my final year at secondary school. I am studying for my
GCSEs* and I expect to do well in both English and Maths. Although I have no work experience, I am an honest and hardworking person. I am friendly and I like to meet new people and I feel these are suitable qualities for the position.
       I am available for an interview in the afternoons. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
       Your sincerily,
  Sarah Green
  Sarah Green
* Exams that British children take at the age of sixteen.

Presentation for Finland: SPANISH ART

Spain has a very strong artistic tradition and we could talk about many of its expressions like
1-2: arquitecture (This is the Alhambra in Granada, which is an Islamic palace built in the 9^th century and this one is one of the stunning fairy-tale buildings designed by the Modernist architect Antoni Gaudi)
3: dancing
4-5: literature (here we can see Don Quixote, which was published the early 17^th century and which is considered the most influential Spanish work of literature and a selection of  poems by the Andalusian poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1956).
6-7: Another artistic expression is music. Among many brilliant musicians we can mention the Andalusian Manuel de Falla, who was the most distinguished Spanish composer of the early 20th century. In his musiche achieved a fusion of poetry, asceticism, and ardour that represents the spirit of Spain at its purest, as we can appreciate in this composition…
8-9: There are also reknowned Spanish singers such as the Catalonian soprano Montserrat Caballé and the tenor Plácido Domingo.
butamong the expressions of art we have chosen to talk in a bit more detailed way  about  painting and sculpture.



10-We will start telling you something about painting.
11-During the 16th and 17th centuries, considered Spain's Golden Age, many famous Spanish painters emerged including artists like

12-Diego de Velázquez

13-At the age of 24 he became an official court painter in the courtof 14-King Philip IV and one of the most important painters of theSpanish Golden Age. He was an excellent portrait artist of the Baroqueperiod.

Between 1656 and 1658, Velázquez painted two works that earned him the name “painter of the painters” among artists of his time: 15- Las Hilanderas (The Spinners)and16-Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour) and both paintings contain symbolic complexity and play with light.

We are  going to comment on The Maids of Honour, which is the most commented painting discussed in art history classes worldwide

Las Meninas, which includes a self-portrait of the 17th century artist behind his easel /ˈiːzl/, depicts infanta Margarita, the daughter of Felipe IV surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting (dama de honor), her dwarf/dwɔːv/ and her dog.

It is a complex composition of a group portrait and a self-portrait. It is like a painted “photograph” that leads viewers to ask “who is he really painting, the infanta, the king & queen, or us?”

Some of his numerous paintings are:

17-The Surrender of Breda

18-The Drunks

19-Portrait of Pope Innocent X

20-Old Woman Frying Eggs

21-Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan

His ability to merge color, light and lines has greatly influenced many painters, especially Picasso and Dalí.

22-Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga. He is is considered to be the most innovative Spanish artist of the 20^th century.
It is Cubism for which Picasso is most renowned. 23-Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, depicting five naked prostitutes, began this new period.24/25-He also recreated 58 cubist versions of Las Meninas.
26-Picasso´s masterpiece is Guernica, a powerful image reflecting the reality of war and its consequences. His inspiration was the bombing of the basque population of Guernica by the German and the Italian Air Forces on 26th April 1937.

27-Salvador Dalí was born in Catalonia. As a painter he was a Surrealist. His work is extensive and as it touched different themes. Amongst his pieces of work there were:

28-Crucifixion.

29-Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening (1944)

30-The Last Supper (1955)

31-The Persistence of Memory (1931)
There are many other important painters like
32-Francisco de Goya,who dominated Spanish painting in the 18th century.





But now we are going to move on to the second of the artistic manifestations we were going to deal with:
33-Sculpture
There are also lots of important Spanish sculptors that have left an impressive legacy in the art world, such as Alonso Berruguete and Mariano Benlliure.
Alonso Berruguete was born in Castile/kæˈstiːl. He was the most important Spanish sculptor of the Renaissance, known for his intensely emotional sculptures of figures portrayed in spiritual torment or in religious ecstasy.
Some of his sculptures are:
34-Saint Sebastian
35-the Sacrifice of Isaac,
36-the Adoration of the Magi in polychrome wood.

37-Mariano Benlliure was born in Valencia. He was one of the greatest Spanish sculptors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

He made lots of religious sculptures, like 38-Recumbent Christ  /rɪˈkʌmbənt/ (yacente)

He was very productive. In fact, his first exhibitions came before he reached the age of ten.

39-The subject of his art are also everyday events and street people, like the funerary monument to the bullfighter “Joselito el gallo”, which is in the cementery of Seville.

In addition, he created many monuments dedicated to relevant personalities, such as 40-Isabel la Católica and Christopher Columbus or 41-the painter Francisco de Goya.

Silent Night

ROMEO AND JULIET SCRIPT

Party scene

Did my heart love till now?
Forswear it, sight.

For I never saw true beauty till this night.

If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine,...
..the gentle sin is this.

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand...

             

              ..to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

              Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,...

              ..which mannerly devotion shows in this.

              For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,...

              ..and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

              Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

              Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

              Well, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do.

              They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

              Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

              Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.

              - Yoo-hoo!

              Dave!

              Oh! Agh!

              Ugh!

              Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.

              Then have my lips the sin that they have took?

              Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged!

              Give me my sin again.

              You kiss by the book.

              Juliet! Juliet! Oh!

              Juliet?

              Juliet!

              Madam, your mother craves a word with you.

              Come, let's away!

              Is she a Capulet?

              His name is Romeo, and he's a Montague,...

              ..the only son of your great enemy.

              Away, be gone. The sport is at its best.

              Ay, so I fear. The more is my unrest.

              I am a pretty piece offlesh!

              I am a pretty piece offlesh!

              I am a pretty piece of flesh! I am!

              My only love sprung from my only hate!

              Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

              Prodigious birth of love it is to me, that I must love a loathed enemy.

DEATH SCENE

 

My love...

                My wife...

                Death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath...

                ..hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.

                Thou art not conquered.

                Beauty's ensign yet is crimson in thy lips 

and in thy cheeks...

                ..and death's pale flag is not advanced there.

                Dear Juliet, why art thou yet so fair?

                Shall I believe that unsubstantial death is 

amorous...

                ..and keeps thee here in dark to be his 

paramour?

                Here.

                O, here will I set up my everlasting rest...

                ..and shake the yoke of inauspicious stars 

from this world-wearied 

flesh.

                Eyes, look your last.

                Arms, take your last embrace.

                And lips...

                O you, the doors to breath,...

                ..seal with a righteous kiss...

                ..a dateless bargain...

                ..to engrossing death.

                Romeo...

                What's here?

                Poison...

                Drunk all, and left no friendly drop 

to help me after?

                I'll kiss thy lips.

                Haply some poison yet doth hang on 

them.

                Thy lips are warm.

                Thus...

                ..with a kiss...

                ..I die.

                See what a scourge is laid upon 

your hate,...

                ..that heaven finds means to kill 

your joys with love!

                And l, for winking at your discords 

too, have lost a brace of  kinsmen.

                All are punished.

                All are punished!

                A glooming peace this morning 

with it brings.

                The sun for sorrow will not show 

his head.

                Go hence, to have more talk of 

these sad things.

                Some shall be pardoned, and 

some punished.

                For never was a story of more woe than 

this of Juliet and her Romeo.