TASK # 8 : WRITING AN EMAIL

GIVEN ON: 25/01/2016
DEADLINE: 29/01/2016
INSTRUCTIONS: WRITE an email to a real person. FOLLOW the guide below:

Paragraph 1:  Greet and give news of yourself.

Paragraph 2: Give news about friends and family.

Paragraph 3: Ask about the other person's news and suggest a meeting.



Hi Diego,

How are you? I am very overwhelmed because I have started with the exams in my school and I have to study a lot and I haven't got free time. Howeber I have started the football leage and I am very confortable in my new team called U.D La Mosca.

Do you remember my family? They are very good with me because I got very good marks at school. My sister Lidia is in second of Bachillerato and she only study because the next year she has the university entrance exam and then she has to choose an university degree.

Finally I would want to know what about you? Also You could come on summer and sleep in my house. We will enjoy at the beach with my friends.

See you and write soon with your news.

A hug,
Alex Guti.

TASK # 6 : A CHRISTMAS STORY

GIVEN ON: 15/12/2015

DEADLINE: 20/12/2015

INSTRUCTIONS: Read the story. Then ...

1. Write a 100 summary in your own words in English/Spanish.

It talks about how the boy love his father and how his father love him. He knows it because he heard his parents talking about his growing and that his father hated call him on the mornings.

Some days before Christmas he gave to his father a present and the day of Christmas he get up so early and did the work that he had to do with his father. He did it and it was the best gift for his father. So fifteen years after he will do it the same but with her wife, to say how much he loves her.
2. How much did you like the story? Explain in English/Spanish, please.
The story is boring but the final is very poignant because his present is very modest.

CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE MORNING

Pearl S Buck

He woke suddenly and completely. It was four o'clock, the hour at which his father had always called him to get up and help with the milking. Strange how the habits of his youth clung to him still! Fifty years ago, and his father had been dead for thirty years, and yet he waked at four o'clock in the morning. He had trained himself to turn over and go to sleep, but this morning it was Christmas, he did not try to sleep.

Why did he feel so awake tonight? He slipped back in time, as he did so easily nowadays. He was fifteen years old and still on his father's farm. He loved his father. He had not known it until one day a few days before Christmas, when he had overheard what his father was saying to his mother.

"Mary, I hate to call Rob in the mornings. He's growing so fast and he needs his sleep. If you could see how he sleeps when I go in to wake him up! I wish I could manage alone.

"Well, you can't, Adam." His mother's voice was brisk. "Besides, he isn't a child anymore. It's time he tok his turn."

"Yes," his father said slowly. "But I sure do hate to wake him."

When he heard these words, something in him spoke: his father loved him! He had never thought of that before, taking for granted the tie of their blood. Neither his father nor his mother talked about loving their children--they had no time for such things. There was always so much to do on the farm.

Now that he knew his father loved him, there would be no loitering in the mornings and having to be called again. He got up after that, stumbling blindly in his sleep, and pulled on his clothes, his eyes shut, but he got up.

And then on the night before Christmas, that year when he was fifteen, he lay for a few minutes thinking about the next day. They were poor, and most of the excitement was in the turkey they had raised themselves and mince pies his mother made. His sisters sewed presents and his mother and father always bought him something he needed, not only a warm jacket, maybe, but something more, such as a book. And he saved and bought them each something, too. 

He wished, that Christmas when he was fifteen, he had a better present for his father. As usual he had gone to the ten-cent store and bought a tie. It had semed nice enough until he lay thinking the night before Christmas. He looked out of his attic window, the stars were bright.

"Dad," he had once asked when he was a little boy, "What is a stable?"

"It's just a barn," his father had replied, "like ours."

Then Jesus had been born in a barn, and to a barn the shepherds had come...

The thought struck him like a silver dagger. Why should he not give his father a special gift too, out there in the barn? He could get up early, earlier than four o'clock, and he could creep into the barn and get all the milking done. He'd do it alone, milk and clean up, and then when his father went in to start the milking he'd see it all done. And he would know who had done it. He laughed to himself as he gazed at the stars. It was what he would do, and he musn't sleep too sound.

He must have waked twenty times, scratching a match to look each time to look at his old watch -- midnight, and half past one, and then two o'clock.

At a quarter to three he got up and put on his clothes. He crept downstairs, careful of the creaky boards, and let himself out. The cows looked at him, sleepy and surprised. It was early for them, too.

He had never milked all alone before, but it seemed almost easy. He kept thinking about his father's surprise. His father would come in and get him, saying that he would get things started while Rob was getting dressed. He'd go to the barn, open the door, and then he'd go get the two big empty milk cans. But they wouldn't be waiting or empty, they'd be standing in the milk-house, filled.

"What the--," he could hear his father exclaiming.

He smiled and milked steadily, two strong streams rushing into the pail, frothing and fragrant.

The task went more easily than he had ever known it to go before. Milking for once was not a chore. It was something else, a gift to his father who loved him. He finished, the two milk cans were full, and he covered them and closed the milk-house door carefully, making sure of the latch.

Back in his room he had only a minute to pull off his clothes in the darkness and jump into bed, for he heard his father up. He put the covers over his head to silence his quick breathing. The door opened.

"Rob!" His father called. "We have to get up, son, even if it is Christmas."

"Aw-right," he said sleepily.

The door closed and he lay still, laughing to himself. In just a few minutes his father would know. His dancing heart was ready to jump from his body.

The minutes were endless -- ten, fifteen, he did not know how many -- and he heard his father's footsteps again. The door opened and he lay still.

"Rob!"

"Yes, Dad--"

His father was laughing, a queer sobbing sort of laugh.

"Thought you'd fool me, did you?" His father was standing by his bed, feeling for him, pulling away the cover.

"It's for Christmas, Dad!"

He found his father and clutched him in a great hug. He felt his father's arms go around him. It was dark and they could not see each other's faces.

"Son, I thank you. Nobody ever did a nicer thing--"

"Oh, Dad, I want you to know -- I do want to be good!" The words broke from him of their own will. He did not know what to say. His heart was bursting with love.

He got up and pulled on his clothes again and they went down to the Christmas tree. Oh what a Christmas, and how his heart had nearly burst again with shyness and pride as his father told his mother and made the younger children listen about how he, Rob, had got up all by himself.

"The best Christmas gift I ever had, and I'll remember it, son every year on Christmas morning, so long as I live."

They had both remembered it, and now that his father was dead, he remembered it alone: that blessed Christmas dawn when, alone with the cows in the barn, he had made his first gift of true love.

This Christmas he wanted to write a card to his wife and tell her how much he loved her, it had been a long time since he had really told her, although he loved her in a very special way, much more than he ever had when they were young. He had been fortunate that she had loved him. Ah, that was the true joy of life, the ability to love. Love was still alive in him, it still was.

It occured to him suddenly that it was alive because long ago it had been born in him when he knew his father loved him. That was it: Love alone could awaken love. And he could give the gift again and again.This morning, this blessed Christmas morning, he would give it to his beloved wife. He could write it down in a letter for her to read and keep forever. He went to his desk and began his love letter to his wife: My dearest love...

Such a happy, happy Christmas!

TASK # 5: MY CHRISTMAS STORY
GIVEN ON: 18/12/2015

DEADLINE: 23/12/2015

INSTRUCTIONS:   Below you'll find 4 stories that may well have happened during Christmas, any Christmas. They need to be finished. Please, read them and choose the one you like best. Finish it in English.

CHRISTMAS STORY 1

It`s the morning of Christmas Day. Mr. Bull, a lonely, rich, old man is looking at the big Christmas

tree in one of the corners of his huge dining room. There are no presents under the tree that one of the house servants has decorated. The old man sits down and dozes off: he dreams of other Christmas Days during his childhood, when he was poor but happy. He wakes up and begins to accept that once again he will spend Christmas Day all alone. The door bell rings: it`s a totally unexpected visit that cheers up his spirit and somehow changes him forever.

- Hello!

- Hi! How are you?

- Bad because I'm going to be alone  on Christmas.

- It's not a problem because we're going to be together because we were friends when we were young.

- Ok, but I haven't got any present for you.

- It doesn't matter but I have to give you my present!

(Dialogue between Mr Bull and The Visitor)

CHRISTMAS STORY 2

Ana and David are a middle­aged couple with two grown up children. They are sitting in their kitchen on Christmas Eve. They have just had another bitter argument. David has just told Ana that maybe they should separate since their relationship seems to be deteriorating so badly. Ana starts crying.

After a while she opens an envelope sent by her doctor. It says she is pregnant. Ana looks at David.

…... She doesnt know what to say.

(Dialogue between Ana and David)

CHRISTMAS STORY 3

Martín, an unemployed father of three children has been looking for a job for over a year with little

success. His situation is really desperate: he has no money to pay for his rent, or his children`s school books and clothes. If they don`t go hungry it`s thanks to some help from relatives.

One day, Martín goes to the toilet at the railway station. He then notices a briefcase propping against the wall. He picks it up and opens it. He can`t believe his eyes: the briefcase contains a lot of money. At first he thinks he is a lucky man. He thinks that all that money will solve his problems but after a few minutes he is not so sure about it all. There`s a big doubt in his head. Should he keep it?

(Dialogue between Martín and Martin´s wife)

CHRISTMAS STORY 4

Mario, a young drug addict, desperately needs money to pay fo his daily fix. He`s determined to rob a supermarket. When he goes into the shop a Christmas carol is playing on the loudspeakers. It`s a carol his mother used to sing to him when he was a child. He stops for a while and suddenly he can`t help starting to sob and feeling really bitter when the memories filled his mind. Rosa, one of the supermarket girls sees Mario and asks him if he is all

righ. Mario looks at Rosa. His right hand is in his pocket and he is still holding a knife.

(Dialogue between Mario and Rosa)

TASK # 7 : A LETTER TO THE THREE KINGS

GIVEN ON: 08/01/2016
DEADLINE: 13/01/2016
INSTRUCTIONS:  PLEASE, finish writing the letter to the 3 Kings.
1. For a person very dear to me, please, bring, happiness to be more positive and get better marks.
2. For my family (or a member of my family, please, bring, patience to don't have to shout to my.
3. For my country, please, bring, money to leave from crisis.
4. For the world, bring, peace to don't have to get wars.