Finally the raffle

We are pleased to inform that the three scholarships will be drawn this Friday at 10:00 a.m. You’re welcome to come and attend the raffle. The winners will be notified and the results publicised here.

Activity of the week

And you?
What are you going to ask Santa?

Activity of the week - Find out the five mistakes and correct them

Tomorrow is the last day of Novembre. In Saturday we enter in the most expected month for childrens: December, the month to buy, ofer and recieve presents. But the most important is to be with the family and friends.

Common Errors - Specially and Especially

Especially and specially are two adverbs often misused by English learners. Here are some examples that might help you to understand their differences:

Wrong: A woman who works sometimes neglects her family, specially the children.
Right: A woman who works sometimes neglects her family, especially the children.

Specially is an adverb used when we want to describe a single special purpose:
e.g. The course has been specially prepared for young beginners
e.g. I came here specially to see you.”

Especially means “particularly”:
e.g. You need extra heating in the house especially during the winter months

in Heaton & Turton (1987) Longman Dictionary of Common Errors (abridged and adapted)

Have a nice weekend!

Riddle of the week!

Which word doesn't belong to this group? hat, that, chat, what, mat, cat, sat, pat, or bat?

Riddle of the Week

Which is correct to say:
a) The yolk of the egg are white?
b) The yolk of the egg is white?

Riddle of the week!

What goes around the world but stays in a corner?

Writer of the Month - David Leavitt

David Leavitt teaches English at the University of Florida. His novels and short-stories are widely known and can be found translated into Portuguese.
To learn more:
http://web.english.ufl.edu/faculty/dleavitt/

"Well, I kept writing stories. I thought about despair, and I thought about getting drafted. I tried to understand what made me love the stories I loved. The process was halting, usually exhuberant, sometimes graceful. I don't think I ever wrote a single opening line that ended up being the opening line of the story for which it was intended."

David Leavitt (2003) Collected Stories, Bloomsbury, Introduction xi

Can you guess this one?

Brandon, Lauren, Kylie, Robert, and Ashley went trick or treating together. They each wore a different costume (a ghost, a pirate, Spiderman, a witch, and a ghost). At the end of the day, each of them counted the number of pieces of candy they collected. They each collected a different amount of candy (63, 77, 83, 54, and 84).Figure out the costume worn by each person and the amount of candy each person collected.

1. Brandon was not a pirate.
2.The boys (Robert and Brandon) costumes included a pirate and Spiderman.
3. Lauren and Kylie collected a total of 161 pieces of candy.
4. The ghost collected 77 pieces of candy.
5. The pirate collected 83 pieces of candy.
6. Ashley and Lauren collected a total of 140 pieces of candy.
7. The witch collected the most pieces of candy.

(http://edhelper.com/)

Get a treat if you guess!

This is Halloween!

Katie Melua

Ketevan "Katie" Melua is a British-Georgian singer, songwriter and musician. She was born in the country of Georgia, but moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eight and then relocated to England at the age of 14.
In November 2003, at the age of 19, Melua released her first album, Call off the Search, which reached the top of the United Kingdom album charts and sold 1.8 million copies in its first five months of release. Her second album, Piece by Piece, was released in September 2005 and to date has gone platinum four times.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Melua abridged and adapted)

We are reading

Metro Stop Dostoevsky - Travels in Russian Time by Ingrid Bengis

Ingrid Bengis was born in 1944. Her parents were Russian Jewish immigrants that travelled to the United States. She is well known by her feminist book Combat in the Erogenous Zone and by her novel Metro Stop Dostoevsky - Travels in Russian Time (2003).